Error in Calculation
by Durandall
Summary: After school when everyone has left, come to the 1-5 classroom? Seems harmless enough ... right? A backup watches her primary and wonders if she could do better. Not a matchup for the characters it's about; not as AU as it will seem initially.
1. Prologue: Initial Filing

Error in Calculation

Prologue: Initial Filing

A 'Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' fanfiction.

Disclaimer: The novel 'Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu'/'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. ;)

Additionally, a character is borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07, but don't read too much into that.  


* * *

Chief investigating officer: Oishi Kuraudo

Report date: 05/19/2009 : 21:30

Contents of report: Summary and index of initial inspection of scene, incident #0014-M09-NISHI (suspicious death)  
Event location: Nishinomiya Kitago, classroom 1-5  
Investigation status: ONGOING  
Index: Evidence articles in order of discovery; victim identification; discovery witness account; SOCO notes; investigator opinion

-Evidence articles-

#1 : Combat knife, discovered near victim's corpse. Blade length 24 cm, handle length 15cm. Single edge front, serrated reverse. (Attached photos 8-16, 18, 22)

#2 : Clothing scraps, discovered in area around victim. (Attached photos 1-15)

#3 : Handwritten note, discovered in victim's clothing. Reads, "After school when everyone has left, come to the 1-5 classroom." (Attached photocopy 1)

Additional unprocessed/processing evidence: Fingerprints lifted from note.

-Victim identification-

Name: DO NOT DISCLOSE ('Student K')  
Year: 1st  
Educational file: (attached photocopies 2-12)

-Discovery witness-

Name: DO NOT DISCLOSE ('Student T')  
Year: 1st  
Witness account: (see investigating officer for transcript)  
Summary: Student T returned to class 1-5 shortly after 17:40 PM to get a notebook he had forgotten, reports shock on discovery of Student K's remains. (Claims not to have interfered with crime scene; lack of bloodstains on self/clothing appear consistent.) Student T then called for help from watch-duty teacher and classroom 1-5 advisor Okabe Ryugo. Okabe then maintained watch over the scene as student T called police as per policy.

-SOCO Notes-

NOTE: These are INCOMPLETE notes IN PROCESS, for an update, please see chief investigating officer/SOCO chief.  
Student K was found roughly in the center of the classroom, surrounded by knocked over desks/chairs (photos 1-3, 5-9). Despite the lack of obvious defensive wounds, SOCO notes that overturned furniture/cut clothing is consistent with attempted evasion. Blood spatter is severe, but there are no footprints/obvious bloody fingerprints at the scene (even from the victim).

Irregularities: Student K has no obvious ligature marks or bruises; it is likely that more than one assailant was involved to hold Student K in place, but there is only one void in blood spatter. Lack of significant defensive wounds does not match with height of spatter (victim was standing, immobile or suspended during the attack).

(SOCO chief notes: The scene will be held for an additional 24 hours. The physical evidence is somewhat inconsistent, but it seems unlikely that any assailant would have escaped blood spatter on clothing.)

-Investigator Opinion-

The brutality of the murder suggests that this was intensely personal. Multiple stab wounds, and numerous slashes. The perpetrator is most likely male and very strong to hold Student K prone and also swing the knife. Otherwise, it is most likely multiple perpetrators. A task force will begin interviewing students tomorrow to find out more about the situation. Currently, we don't have specific suspects beyond Student T.

-END SUMMARY -  



	2. Chapter one: The first day

Error in Calculation

Chapter One: The First Day

A 'Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' fanfiction.

Disclaimer: The novel 'Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu'/'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. ;)

Additionally, a character or two is borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07, but don't read too much into that.  


* * *

The first day was exciting. She wondered what had happened, and if she could get the Brigade together to sneak into the school and find out. But stupid Kyon's phone went straight to voice-mail, and the student directory with his home number was stuck in her desk at school. Mikuru's phone rang and rang and rang, but no one answered. Koizumi's voice-mail said that something urgent had come up, and he might not be able to return calls for a while.

Excitement gave way to frustration.

Haruhi wasn't sure what Yuki's phone number was, so she couldn't call her, and she didn't have the numbers of anyone else at school. So a great opportunity almost instantly turned into more boring sameness. "What a waste," she grumbled, before further thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

Waiting for her outside her home was a rotund man in a black short-sleeved shirt with a red tie. His close-cropped white hair went smoothly up and back in short spikes, and he flicked a cigarette into a small, lidded metal ashtray, which closed with a loud snap, just as the door opened. Behind him were two police officers in normal uniform, one looking around behind him, the other watching the man in front.

"Hello," he said, when she couldn't find anything to say right away. "I'm Oishi Kuraudo," he punctuated his introduction by showing her his badge, "with the Nishinomiya central office. Are you Suzumiya Haruhi?"

"Yes," she managed, a thrill of excitement returning. "That's me. Did you want to come in?"

"If you don't mind," he said agreeably. "Your parents aren't home?"

"Nope." She gestured him in, pointing to the couch in front of the television, which currently was displaying news coverage of a still school gate. "So, what's going on?"

"Ah, well," he said, motioning the officers to wait outside before he entered and sat down. "Why don't you have a seat?"

She nodded, still dressed in her uniform, since she hadn't bothered changing back when she was turned away at the gates. After she sat down, she looked at him expectantly.

He produced a pad of notepaper from his side, and a pen, then consulted his notes. "If it's alright with you, I'd like to ask a few questions. You don't have to answer, of course-"

"No, that's fine!" she said quickly, shaking her head. "I'm glad to help. And if my parents were home, they'd say I should answer your questions, anyway."

"Well, that should be fine, then," he said soberly. "Now, you have an unofficial student association?"

"The SOS Brigade!" she countered, scowling. "That idiot Kyon was supposed to turn in the paperwork! What, did he forget? Man, if he ever picks up his phone..." Her voice fled, trailing off into nothing when she saw the detective's pained expression.

"Suzumiya-san, I'd like to show you a few pictures, if you don't mind?"

She nodded warily.

He pulled a trio of photographs from a clip beneath the page he was writing on. "Do you recognize any of these people?"

All three pictures were very standard, taken on the same day, during opening ceremonies. There was her homeroom teacher, grinning like an idiot with his practiced smile. There was the perverted stalker, trying what he undoubtedly thought was a rakish grin. "Okabe-sensei, Taniguchi, and," she started, before her voice seized up. There was her classmate and first club member, giving a mild, polite smile, like he tolerated it, but didn't really care. "And Kyon," she finally forced out.

"'Kyon'," Oishi repeated, flipping the page back and scribbling another note. "Could you tell me where you were yesterday, at five thirty in the evening?" he asked, putting on a tiny, polite smile of his own.

"I was at the corner market, getting things for dinner," she said quietly, tingles running up and down her spine, but no longer from excitement. "I skipped the club meeting. I ... got into an argument with ... Kyon."

Oishi scribbled more notes down. "An argument? What about?"

"He was telling me stuff ... about me being stupid for ... wanting something mysterious to happen. That I should calm down and find a boyfriend." She blinked, staring at the table between herself and the detective. "I was stupid."

"Well, that kind of thing happens from time-to-time," the detective muttered, still taking notes. "Did Kyon have any enemies that you know of? Or any other good friends? Maybe a girlfriend?"

"He ... had lunch with Taniguchi," she answered, flinching. "And Kunikida. I don't think he had any enemies. Why would he? I mean..." She swallowed. A small part of her mind noticed that he wrote down the second student's name, but not the first. "He wasn't seeing anyone. Um, what happened to Kyon? Is he okay?"

"I can't really say anything about that right now," Oishi said, shaking his head. "Anyway, which market was this?"

She numbly told him the address. When he asked for her phone number, she gave him that, too. More questions followed, which she answered in the same distant, numb manner.

"Thank you, Suzumiya-san. If I have any more questions, I'll give you a call."

"How... How long before I can find out?" she asked quietly.

Oishi rose to his feet and gave a very deep sigh. "I don't know," he said softly. He looked away from her eyes. "Take care, Suzumiya-san."

She nodded, feeling remote, as though she was doing it from far away. She walked him to the door, where he paused.

"Your school will be closed for the next day or two at the very least," he said. "And from this point forward, I strongly suggest that you walk to school with some friends." He hesitated a moment longer, then added, "I'm sorry."

She nodded again, wondering why her vision was blurry and wavering. He left, and she closed the door, taking a seat at the couch and staring at the news report without seeing it.

The next day was not going to be exciting at all.

XXX

She stood on the street corner and looked at the school. Law enforcement officials had blocked the entrance, their vehicles parked in front of the gate as they turned students away.

An internal notification warned her that standing and staring had a high probability of being misconstrued, and would be attention-gathering behavior. She abruptly turned on one foot and began walking back to the building she had left earlier that day. Her face betrayed no expression as she communed with her directive forces.

The consensus had been broken. The irregularities would be sorted out, but in the meantime, verification and understanding would be prerequisites. If factors failed to align, her objectives would not be met. Furthermore, searching through references suggested that maintaining functional observation distance with her subject would be socially acceptable.

That thought in mind, she changed course, turning away from the building she had left that morning. It didn't take her long to reroute to the observation subject's home. As she approached, she noted more local law enforcement, a director of some sort exiting the building. He saw her, and she determined that his gaze lingered on the crest on her uniform momentarily before he approached and asked her for her identification values.

She answered his questions quietly.

Would she be more comfortable talking in his car? He had air conditioning.

Irrelevant.

The man made an offhand comment about taking the opportunity to at least smoke and lit a cigarette. She watched the process curiously, not having directly observed it before. After a few breaths, he showed her some visual representations, and asked if she could identify them.

She could.

What was her relationship with Kyon?

They were both members of the same club.

Where was she yesterday, at five thirty?

Halfway down the hill to the train station.

Outside of the club, did Kyon have any other close friends?

She didn't know.

Did he have a girlfriend?

She didn't know.

Did he have any enemies?

She gave him the same answer.

After checking her name off a list, he asked for her phone number, which she gave him. After that, he closed his notepad. Her references suggested that this meant the interview was over, but she continued observing him anyway.

"Is Suzumiya-san your friend?"

She blinked at him, submitting several clarification queries. The lost consensus was not able to route them in a time that her social monitor deemed adequate for the situation. Their relationship was not accurately described in those terms, but she nodded anyway, terminating the previously launched queries.

"Did she like Kyon?"

She blinked again, not submitting any data, relying on internal analysis alone. Suzumiya Haruhi was interested without question. Chemical triggers in Suzumiya Haruhi's brain were present uniquely in proximity to him, according to her observations. Her reference list suggested that her behavior thus far did not agree with the chemical observations, however. She could only say she was uncertain.

"Well, anyway ... looks like you and your friend are both in a bad state over this. Why don't the two of you stick together for a while? It'll probably be on an official bulletin later, but advice is for students to travel in groups."

"Understood," she answered him. "I will watch Suzumiya Haruhi."

She approached the closed door to her observation subject's home. Airborne particles conveyed a rich tapestry of information to her. She tagged and recorded the unique scent of the detective, and the less unique profile of his cigarettes. Suzumiya Haruhi's own scent tag was there, relaying hormonal information. Her internal library matched the profile with the emotion of sorrow.

She knocked quietly on the door.

"Y...yes?" Haruhi answered, body-language hints showing surprise. "Nagato? What are you doing here?"

Her social monitor tried an automated query, but she killed the process before it externalized. "Club meeting," she answered.

Haruhi's expression twisted to something the local library could not adequately classify, before it shifted to show more generally recognized characteristics. Eyes oriented down, lids narrowed, red-rimmed as though from minor inflammation, jaw semi-slack, corners of the mouth turned down; sorrow again. "Well, come in."

She stepped into Haruhi's living quarters, her eyes fixed on the observation subject. Haruhi closed the door and took small steps towards the couch. Discrepancy; Suzumiya Haruhi's movements were atypical of her standard behavior.

An urgent warning came through her uplink from her faction, was processed, replied to, and then discarded. Directing more process focus to her immediate task, she accessed several databases simultaneously, changing many local attribute and characteristic tags.

"What was that?" Haruhi asked, looking back over her shoulder, paused before reaching the couch.

Her social monitor was still not processing adequately, but advised not staring at Haruhi any longer. "Nothing of import," she answered, taking a seat next to the observation subject and orienting her gaze towards the television screen. Her internal reference still assigned a social-neutral value to staring at the device in most situations. Likely, this would apply as well.

"Hey, Nagato, do you know what happened at school?"

An automated process she had spawned earlier reported in at the trigger conditions; the consensus was still lost. Internal reference and logic systems suggested multiple possible theories. "No."

"I ... think it involved Kyon."

She didn't consult any external sources, instead just giving a tiny nod, which her social monitor suggested would be adequate.

"You, too, huh?"

She remained physically still, except to blink.

"Hey ... Nagato ... my parents are out of town this week. D...do you want to stay over, since I can't get a hold of the rest of the SOS Brigade?"

She considered the logistics of the situation. Maintaining proximity to Suzumiya Haruhi at all times was now a high priority. Even so, the current location was only barely secure for her purposes, and wouldn't do for long term. Still, the social monitor advised against insisting on a safer location immediately. "Yes," she answered. "Tomorrow, come to my home."

"Yeah," Haruhi said, the modulations of her voice suggesting anxiety, and an attempt to hide it. "That's fine. You didn't bring anything to change into, did you?"

"I am fine."

"I'm sure I have some old pajamas that will fit you for tonight, at least."

She gave her minimal nod in response again.

XXX

Koizumi Itsuki sat at attention, sitting in an uncomfortable pipe chair before a circular table. Seated directly across from him was the woman he typically reported to, Sonou Mori. Dressed in somewhat rumpled business casual, she flipped through a short stack of papers, then studied a laptop that hummed quietly next to the papers. She flipped them back, rubbing at her temples with one hand.

Her brown hair was matted, as though she had been up all night - all of them had, of course. Her light eyes were shadowed beneath a furrowed brow, and when she finally broke the uncomfortable silence, all she said was, "Fuck."

Itsuki looked away, staring at the floor. The room had no windows.

"Okay," her voice called out again, resignation and exhaustion running through it. "You still have a link to her mental state?"

"Yes," Itsuki said quietly. "She's upset. Apprehensive. Something happened recently to stabilize her somewhat."

"The Tamaru brothers tell us that Nagato Yuki is with her presently," Mori said with a sigh. "We can probably assume that whoever did this, they wanted to see her reaction, not directly harm her."

"Do we think it was the integrated thought entity?" Itsuki asked, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably. There was unattended closed space, but Mori had insisted he speak with her. The others were dealing with closed space without him, and even if they might be adequate, he didn't like being unable to help.

Mori's eyes flashed. "I don't think it would be the integrated thought entity," she said. "But I can hardly speak for everyone else."

"I apologize," he mumbled, unable to put on his fake smile.

One of the woman's eyebrows twitched, and she took a deep breath. "Sorry," she said. "This is very stressful for all of us. Come with me, let's get a cup of coffee." She snapped the lid of her laptop down, rising to her feet and gesturing him to follow.

He dutifully trotted along at her side as she left through the dark room's only door, into a windowless, empty hallway. Down the hallway to another door, which opened to a small, windowless break-room. Mori muttered to herself darkly as she poured two cups of coffee, adding cream and sugar to both without asking him if he cared for it.

He nodded his thanks anyway when she offered him a cup, burning his tongue with the first scalding sip.

"You're out," she said, shaking her head and marching back to the empty conference room.

He followed, feeling robbed of choice, but nodding. That's all he really was, anyway. A mindless yes-man.

"We've sent your double to Canada. Paperwork for your transfer will go through..." She trailed off and made a vague gesture. "That wasn't my call."

The tiniest trickle of relief flowed through his mind. At least it wasn't just Mori pulling the strings. "This is too much attention for us, and I think too much stress for her," she sighed, rubbing at her eyes. "As you may or may not know, we recently approached the Tsuruya family, hoping to ally ourselves with a relatively influential household in the area."

It was news to him, but he did his job anyway: He nodded again.

"The head of the family, even after witnessing a demonstration of closed space, said that it didn't concern them, and while it might amuse them on occasion to assist us, they weren't interested in an alliance."

Itsuki blinked at that. The 'closed space' demonstration was typically the key to gaining assistance ... it was the only real way to prove that the esper powers were real, that the threat they faced wasn't imaginary. He had to do it himself several times - in point of fact, he remembered only two short years ago, taking Mori's hand and showing her closed space himself. Never once had he heard of someone witnessing it and then pleading indifference.

There was shock, denial - which was fine. The goal wasn't to force people into helping. But if they didn't want to believe, and rationalized it away, it was a simple matter not to deal with that person again. Someone who witnessed, evidently understood ... and just didn't care? What kind of person was the head of the Tsuruya family?

"The Tsuruya family has ties with the yakuza," Mori continued, sipping her coffee.

He raised his own to his lips and pretended to drink, nodding again. A few yakuza families were in the Organization; they had well placed eyes-and-ears, access to questionable resources that could be useful, and a sort of Japanese social invisibility because of who they were.

"It's also theorized at this point because of the amount of money the Organization deals with, that the national police are going to be involved. There's too many suspicious circumstances for this to be overlooked."

Itsuki made a face, shaking his head. He only knew about Organization agents who were relatively common, or branches they had a high level of infiltration on. It was a reasonable guess they had no-one inside the National Police Agency.

"And that makes you a likely suspect in this whole mess."

"Me?" Itsuki protested, nearly dropping his coffee cup. "But I didn't- I was here when it happened! With you!"

"I know that, but how does this look from the outside? Orders came down that you had to be pulled out, because the attention that this brings onto us ... is going to be too much for the Organization to remain hidden."

"At least I'm still somewhat valuable," he remarked with a bitter grumble. "I should be glad I wasn't just killed and left by the wayside."

Mori's unsettling stare did not waver. "Yes, you should be glad," she agreed. "I don't know how much time we have, but this could be causing a fracture at the highest levels of our Organization. No telling who's going to be the lizard's tail, and who will slither off to fight another day."

A loud crash echoed from upstairs, and Mori was out of her seat in an instant, dashing to the door and throwing the bolt with a curse. "We don't have much time," she continued quickly, turning. "Is there closed space here? In this room?"

"Y...yes," he said, nodding, eyes wide as he leapt to his feet. "There's closed space all over."

"Good," she said, relaxing slightly. "Now, you'll need to leave before they get here, but what I want you to do-"

"I have a better idea," he overrode her, holding one hand towards her. His mask may be part of his job, but he could get through this, somehow. The chips were down, and it was time to be a man, not a puppet. "I'm not doing this alone. If it's worth dying for, it's worth living for! Come with me right now; this is the world we live in, not a 'B' movie."

Her eyes widened, conflicting emotions flickering across her face before it smoothed into an amused, worn smile. "Well... Fine. I ... didn't even think of that. Alright, Koizumi-kun," she agreed, reaching out to take his hand as heavy footsteps shuddered down the hallway towards them. "I'm putting my trust in you."

He was aware of the heavy door behind Mori splintering as he pulled her through that odd division of real space and the sealed reality of that other, more alien space.

XXX

Bylaws prevented smoking in public buildings, much to Oishi's annoyance. So after handing the accumulated reports to his under-staff, he stepped out onto a balcony on the upper floors of the main administrative building, lighting a cigarette and considering the investigation.

He was alone for less than a minute before the door opened, and he glanced over his shoulder to see his chief secretary, Mizuno Aida, stepping out with a short stack of papers, neatly clipped together. "Something new?" Oishi asked around the brand in his lips.

"No, sir," Aida responded quietly. "I just thought you might want the executive summary."

He snorted, sending twin streams of smoke from his nostrils. "Might as well. We have until this evening to submit our reports to the brass. Alright, what do we have?"

"We have a dead high school student, a lack of significant suspects, and a murderer who was capable of covering their tracks."

"Eh, accuracy aside, could you rephrase that in a way that makes us look competent? The mayor is going to be at the board I'm submitting this report to, and I don't think he'll be pleased with that analysis."

Aida coughed politely. "Based on our current investigation, the only fingerprints on the note belonged to the victim. There were no prints on the knife. All blood so far has been matched to the victim. There were no traces of DNA underneath his fingernails, and the incident happened after daily cleaning duties, so any loose hairs on the floor would have been more conspicuous, but we found none. The victim's body was still warm when SOCO conducted their initial examinations, and barring an unusually elevated body temperature before the murder, we're still reasonably sure that the assault happened at around five thirty in the evening."

"Sounds about right," Oishi grumbled. "Taniguchi?"

"Well, you interviewed him yourself, sir," Aida said, shrugging. "As well as our profiler and psychologist. His trauma seems genuine and he volunteered for a polygraph, even though we don't have that equipment."

"I remember. Too many police dramas."

"Perhaps you are correct, sir. However, he is currently the only person known to be in range of the classroom, and it's possible that his role as discovery witness is feigned."

"Okabe's just as likely in those terms."

"Technically correct, sir. In either instance, we have not yet established a motive."

Oishi ground his cigarette out and drew another from his pack, twirling it in his fingers absently. "Aida, act as a sounding board for me. I work better when I can voice my thoughts. Do you mind?"

"Of course not, sir. That's why I came out here."

Oishi snorted. "We've worked together too long. Anyway, that's what's bothering me the most about this," he sighed. "Usually, in this type of case it would be a revenge attack. But by all accounts, Student K - the entire school knows him by his nickname, even Okabe - was generally unremarkable, except that he kept a cool head and was genial to everyone. His academic profile has nothing alarming or astoundingly interesting in it either. Adequate grades, fairly average athletic scores. The most remarkable thing about him was his association with a specific classmate."

"A murder with no motive?"

"No discernible motive to kill him directly, at any rate. I tried to interview all the class 1-5 students personally." He broke off momentarily to stop playing with the new cigarette, and lit it with a slow draw. "I also encountered a student from a different class ... 1-6, I think, as I left Suzumiya-san's house. So I'll be going through the other interview records later. However, among those students I interviewed, I found only a few things of note."

Aida inclined his head politely, adjusting his glasses and remaining silent.

After a quick puff, Oishi said, "First off, Kunikida, associate of Student K and Student T. By his testimony, Student K had an interest in 'strange girls'. Kunikida and Student K had gone to middle school together, and also attended the same cram-school."

Aida nodded again. "Is he a suspect?"

"Potentially, but I still can't pin a motive on him directly. So, no more or less than any other student."

After consulting briefly with his notes, Aida looked at Oishi expectantly.

"Secondly, Suzumiya Haruhi, who hosts what's an unrecognized club by the school - the 'SOS Brigade', according to a flier we have."

"'SOS'? If I'm not mistaken, isn't that English for the maritime help request code?"

"Eh, her meaning was different. She took the English letters from the words for ... well, it goes something like, 'save the world by overloading it with fun, Suzumiya Haruhi's brigade'," Oishi said, frowning at the glowing tip of his cigarette. "There's an original and several photocopies of her club flier in the case files."

"I see."

"Continuing on, her disciplinary record stands out, at least from middle school. Behavior issues, vandalism of the school on multiple occasions, disregard for dress code. She's already gotten notices at her new school as well - improper dress and solicitation. Rumor says she's responsible for blackmail, but no one is willing to step forward."

"Meaning...?"

"Eh ... at a cursory inspection, based on her records I would say she lacks empathy."

"You would say, she's a psychopath?"

"Well. I can't make that determination, and our entire department would be destroyed the instant I tried to pin that label on a minor." Oishi gave a pointed stare at Aida.

Aida bowed his head. "Sorry."

"No, I put the evidence before you, and you drew a potentially reasonable conclusion. Not one we can state, however. In any case, Suzumiya-san offered an alibi, and the store she was supposed to be at during the time of the murder is outside of reasonable travel range for the murder's timeframe. We should have their security camera tapes in evidence later today."

"Conveniently timed. So she's a suspect?"

"Our best suspect at the moment," Oishi agreed. "But I don't want to say she's a 'prime' suspect yet. Despite her disciplinary record, she has near perfect grades and an impeccable athletic record."

"So she would be intelligent enough to plan it and capable of executing the assault?"

"Restraining someone the size of Student K and brutalizing him? Physically, perhaps. Emotionally ... I don't think she behaved in a manner consistent with the image I gathered from her records."

"Oh?"

"Naturally, I couldn't reveal Student K's current state and role in the investigation. But she became obviously and almost immediately despondent at the implication that he was involved in a police investigation. And despite procedure, there's little question what we're really asking about."

"So you don't think she did it?"

"I think the security camera footage will prove she wasn't at the school," Oishi clarified. "But I'm also certain she was involved. No one of the students interviewed so far could say that Student K had a girlfriend, per se, but almost all students that were aware of him associated him with Suzumiya-san. Add in Kunikida's statement that Student K liked 'strange girls', well, Suzumiya-san is a strange girl for certain."

Aida stared, narrowing his eyes. "You don't suppose Suzumiya-san's despondency was an act?"

"It's entirely possible," Oishi admitted with a shrug, taking another deep draw. "Moving on, class 1-6, Nagato Yuki. She's another member of the club that Suzumiya Haruhi hosts. Actually, according to records, Nagato Yuki is the only genuine member of the Literature Club, which is the room the SOS Brigade uses, but she's considered a member from what we can gather. Flawless academic record, perfectly average athletic record, no disciplinary records whatsoever.

"Her manner of speech betrays no emotion. If I were to apply one of those forbidden labels that we cannot use to minors, it would most certainly be to her over Suzumiya-san."

"Perhaps she has a motive? If Suzumiya Haruhi took over her club room, and she wanted to extract some form of revenge...?"

Oishi grimaced and stubbed his cigarette out. "Possible motive, but I have a hard time imagining her physically overpowering anyone. She's athletically average, and very small in stature. If it was her, I would think she would require accomplices."

"Suzumiya Haruhi and Nagato Yuki are our prime suspects, then?"

"I don't want to call either of them that, but Nagato-san seems more likely than Suzumiya-san in motive, though it's the other way around in capability. And while Nagato-san could have killed Student K for revenge on Suzumiya-san, Nagato-san was on her way to visit her friend with the school closed. It's possible she was there to gloat, but she seems far too intelligent to do that. More likely, if either of them did it, they were co-conspirators."

"Hmm."

"My initial theory was that Nagato-san, just like Suzumiya-san, was distraught over what had happened to their friend, and they were just looking out for one another. Even so, also from 1-5, there was one other interview that stuck out to me. Asakura Ryouko, class representative. She says she was just leaving school at the time of the incident."

"As the class representative, did she have additional insight?"

"Unsurprisingly. What did strike me as odd was that she never stopped smiling when I questioned her... She had a cheerful demeanor the entire time. Of course, she could just be slow to pick up hints, but given that every other questioned student seemed to have a very good idea of what was going on, that seems unlikely. But then we run into the evidence issue again ... and there's nothing on her, and no discernible motive."

"Student K's parents?"

Oishi grimaced, hand reaching for a third cigarette before he stopped himself, pulling a pen from his pocket and chewing on the cap thoughtfully instead. "Terrible interview," he sighed. "First thing this morning. They gave an extensive list of his middle-school friends, mentioned that he'd recently joined a club, and denied he'd ever had any enemies - or even gotten into a fight at school. Which is consistent with his academic records. There was one interesting side-note to the girlfriend question with his family..."

"Oh?"

"Eh. Student K's mother suspected that he was initially interested in Suzumiya Haruhi, as her name had come up in casual conversation previously, but recently the name of Asahina Mikuru had come up more often."

"Asahina-san is...?"

"Second year student. Also a member of the SOS Brigade - she was involved in Suzumiya-san's last scheme, and had gotten her first disciplinary mark for it. No answer on her cell phone, and for whatever reason, no voice-mail. We cited emergency purposes, and her apartment's landlord let us into her rooms. Nothing out of the ordinary - no signs of struggle or foul play. But no Asahina-san, either."

"Her parents?"

"Disconnected number and invalid address," Oishi sighed, looking over the edge of the balcony to the distant street below. "Asahina Mikuru, Asakura Ryouko, and Nagato Yuki. Three high school students with unreachable parents, evidently living on their own, all of them tied to fellow student and SOS Brigade leader Suzumiya Haruhi."

"Are there any other club members?"

"Koizumi Itsuki, also unreachable, though his parents insist he's on an out-of-country trip to Canada. The ticket registry puts him as leaving the country for Canada late last night."

"That seems suspicious."

"It does ... but a suspicion is not evidence. We can prove he left the country, and the ticket was bought less than an hour before the flight took off. And well after the murder. The situation is consistent with fleeing the scene of a crime, but in any case, Canada will extradite if more information comes to light, and Interpol has him on a watch list. He's not escaping anything, if he did it."

"The club members make the most likely suspects," Aida ventured. "But I can see your hesitance to label any a prime suspect."

"Despite all that ... it was Asakura-san's behavior that I found the most unsettling," Oishi murmured. "Something about her ... was just off. I felt something similar from Nagato-san ... but I can't put 'strange feeling' into a report."

"I see... What do we report to the seniors at tonight's meeting, then?"

"We can keep most of our speculation to ourselves," Oishi sighed. "We're going to be in trouble on this one; it's a given that the national police will be involved, since an Interpol flag was raised. Pull phone records for the entire club. Forget preparing for the meeting, I'll bull through it - instead, I want you to prepare a briefing for the national police who will be joining our investigation ... or taking it over."

"Understood," Aida replied, bowing.

"Oh," Oishi said, as his assistant was reaching for the door handle, "don't let me forget, Aida-chan ... thanks for hearing me out."

"I'm glad to be helpful, Kura-chan."

Oishi grunted in response, staring out at the glittering city lights. Overhead, an out-of-season storm-front loomed ominously. "Lightning weather," he murmured. 


	3. Chapter two: The second day

Error in Calculation

Chapter Two: The Second Day

A 'Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' fanfiction.

Disclaimer: The novel 'Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu'/'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. ;)

Additionally, a character or two is borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07, but don't read too much into that.  


* * *

Itsuki remembered a fair number of his personal closed-space experiments well enough. It was a point of curiosity; he knew the exact extent and limits of his abilities ... as far as what their intended purposes were. But small abuses of those abilities could be wormed out of clever use anyway.

The one he was counting on was exiting at a different point than the one he had entered from. He frowned at the monochrome gray room, a nearly identical copy of the one he and Mori had just left. She followed him quietly as they walked through the splintered remains of the door and down the empty hall, both of them flying into the wall as the building shuddered.

"Shinjin!" he exclaimed, taking her wrist and heading towards the exit he felt was furthest from the giant. She paced him easily, following his lead only because she didn't know which route would be safe. They made the hallway, then ran up the flights of stairs to street level, escaping the building seconds ahead of a giant, liquid pillar of blue smashing the building down.

None of the other espers were near this particular Shinjin yet, and he grimaced, his senses reporting that this relatively recent closed space had merged with another. Turning down the street, he decided to try and consider it an advantage. "Mori-san," he called out, between steps, "do you have a safe location? Any holdouts?"

"Just one," she answered, once they were a few blocks away from the Shinjin, still walking quickly. "How big is this closed space?"

"I've never seen one so big," he answered honestly. "But that's fine; that means I can take you further."

Mori took a deep breath, considering. "I can try and find the Tamaru brothers. Maybe I can get them out of this; we're going to need allies if we want to do anything."

"That's certainly true," Itsuki agreed quietly, wiping his forehead with one hand as a crimson orb streaked across the sky, circling the nearby Shinjin. "What were you going to tell me, anyway?"

Mori watched the display for a moment, then strode into a nearby alley, out of line of sight. Itsuki followed. "Right now, Asahina Mikuru is probably the only one who can get us out of this," Mori said. "Based on your analysis, and the psychology pool we maintain- Maintained, I suppose, to analyze Suzumiya, she had at the very least great affection for Kyon."

That assessment was no surprise to Itsuki.

"Our best guess is that as a theoretical 'unaffiliated' but known friend of Asahina Mikuru, she would be at the Tsuruya estate, somewhere.

"Unfortunately, I'm not the only one that knows this. Push-comes-to-shove, Organization manpower and equipment is enough to overcome whatever unsuspecting yakuza are guarding the gate. We may not understand the mechanism or motivation for the time traveler, but we have a strong guess that if they manage to take her unaware and keep her unconscious, she won't be able to escape. I apologize for using you as a pawn, Koizumi, but you're too important fighting closed space for the Organization to attack you."

"Not just a pawn," Itsuki disagreed, looking overhead as another crimson orb crossed the sky. "You're right, though; I do have too much value to them. What do you think I should do, then?"

"You need to find Asahina Mikuru," Mori said, frowning. "I'm going to try and rally what resistance I can within the Organization, but it's going to be dangerous for both of us. In the meantime ... I was going to send you to a safe house. Arakawa should be waiting there." She produced an envelope from her pocket and hurriedly opened it, taking a key out, but handing the rest to him. "If it's still safe, I'll be waiting there with him. If we can trust anyone, it will be him."

Itsuki nodded. "I understand," he said, pocketing the envelope. "Does anyone else know about this safe house?"

A nearby building suddenly collapsed, shooting a mass of dust into the street behind their alley. Mori ducked, grimacing. "They shouldn't. We were very careful for just this eventuality. Try and infiltrate whatever remains of the Organization - they should accept you because of your esper powers alone. And, Koizumi?"

"Yes?"

"Good luck."

He smiled, holding his hand out to her. "Come on. Let's get out of here, Mori-san."

She nodded, and he closed his eyes, focusing and wrapping his power around both of them carefully.

XXX

The second day was miserable.

Rain poured down in thick, uncomfortably warm sheets, occasionally punctuated by the rumble of distant lightning. No one called her back, not even the detective from the day before.

Her parents were gone, but at least Yuki had come over. She didn't know how the other girl had known where she lived, but she didn't care at the moment. Waking up in bed next to the other girl at least gave her the comfort of knowing she wasn't totally alone, even if Yuki didn't have Kyon's home number either.

But Yuki seemed more silent than usual. She obviously was unsettled by the whole thing, too.

The television reported nothing but static; the storm had somehow disabled all reception. Going outside in this weather to try and check the connections...

She shivered, trying to focus long enough to cook breakfast. She burnt at least half of it, but put the worst on her own plate. Yuki ate in silence, almost mechanically, her eyes only occasionally flicking to her plate, and mostly fixed on the flickering screen.

"That's enough," Haruhi finally said softly, prompting the shorter girl to look at her, glasses reflecting the disorderly snow of the television screen. She turned it off.

Yuki stared at her for a moment, then turned her attention to her empty plate. "I will clean," she said in her hushed monotone.

Haruhi nodded, moving to the seat by the window so she could look outside. The rain continued to pour steadily down.

After Yuki finished the dishes, she moved to sit at Haruhi's side, though she didn't look at the view. Probably, Haruhi thought, she was lost in her own thoughts. As always.

By late afternoon the rains finally slowed to a drizzle, and Haruhi packed her overnight bag for a few days, stuffing her uniform in almost as an afterthought.

"Your place, right?" Haruhi asked, grabbing an umbrella for each of them.

Yuki gave that small nod that Haruhi was starting to realize was one of her major modes of communication. As they had waited the day away together in silence, they walked to the train station, and then to Yuki's apartment.

"Your place is ... very nice," Haruhi said, looking around at the lack of furniture.

Yuki said nothing in response.

"Um ... let me know if there's anything I can do to help you out," she tried, beginning to be worried by the other girl's silence.

"Yes," Yuki agreed quietly.

"So... Do you want to talk about it?"

Yuki turned to look at her, and the smaller girl's eyes blinked once behind their glass lenses before she replied, "No."

Haruhi looked away, swallowing. "Me either," she muttered.

XXX

After the last night's disastrous 'summary' meeting, Oishi had reported all known information, sans speculation, to a council that included the mayor, the police chief and his direct staff, a representative from the Diet, and a trio of National Police representatives - officially, the NPA did not have officers. As he had anticipated, the NPA were assigned as observers for the case before the meeting was over. While nothing specific was said against Oishi, the feeling of resentment from his superiors was very strong.

After arduous hours combing through all of the assembled evidence and testimony - again - Oishi found himself alone in a meeting with the senior NPA representative, Akasaka Mamoru. "What else can I do to help you, Akasaka-kun?" he asked cheerlessly.

"At this point, it's more of a question of what I can do to help you, Oishi-kun," Akasaka countered, frowning. "You're right about the Interpol flag bringing us in, but in the public perception, we don't want the NPA involved."

Oishi nodded, then rose from his seat and locked the door to the small room. Crossing over to the window underneath Akasaka's questioning gaze, he opened it, leaning slightly outward and lighting another cigarette. "Politics?"

"Of course. If this case escalates straight to NPA after just three days, citizens may become concerned that their law enforcement isn't effective. Given that this is also a ... difficult case, at best, if the NPA is directly involved, failure to solve it makes us look bad. Our director doesn't like to step on toes, but he reports directly to the Department of Public Safety..."

"Alright," Oishi said with a grunt, tapping his cigarette into his portable ashtray. "Let's just leave it at 'politics'."

"Thank you for understanding."

"What about the Interpol flag?"

"The NPA has been tracing questionable financial actions centered around associates of Koizumi Itsuki. In all honesty, he shouldn't have been able to leave the country."

Oishi raised an eyebrow. "Akasaka-kun, is there some hidden crime on Koizumi-san's record we don't know about?"

"Only speculation," the NPA representative said, shaking his head. "I didn't bring any of my case files with me, but we can't officially bring them into this case yet. Even so..."

"I think I understand," Oishi said with a wearied smirk. "Alright. Ears only."

"Right. Firstly, you're familiar with the Tsuruya family?"

"Vaguely," Oishi answered, narrowing his eyes. "Hmm, a second year, associate of Asahina Mikuru, but not Suzumiya Haruhi. No witnesses put Student K and Tsuruya-san together, and I believe she was home at the time of the assault."

"The Tsuruya who attends Kitago is currently most likely to become the next family head. The Tsuruya family is strongly suspected of yakuza involvement."

Oishi drummed his fingers on the windowsill. "Yakuza... They would have the manpower and knowledge to commit the crime, but I can't see them penetrating the school unnoticed. No, I can't even see them considering the school was the place to do it. Wouldn't they abduct Student K off the street in a car?"

"Still looking back to 1995?"

"Akasaka-san, do you know how embarrassing that was?"

"I can only imagine," Akasaka said, grimacing. "But, please tell me?"

"Eh ... in 1995, Nishinomiya was hit by an unprecedented disaster - I'm sure you remember the Kobe earthquake. I had actually transferred in from Okinomiya a few weeks before then - the first day of the disaster, when SDF emergency vehicles still had not arrived, we were approached by the yakuza."

"And...?"

"They gave us their vehicles, volunteered all of their 'little brothers' and 'bigger bothers' for rescue services and manual labor. They even had their lieutenants coordinating relief, managing distribution of stockpiled goods... Ah, that was nothing compared to what they did in Kobe, where the damage was worst. There, they even gave a helicopter to the rescue efforts."

"I think I remember ... I was still in school at the time. It was very embarrassing for the government."

"Right. But the Tsuruya family would be subject to the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi, unless I'm mistaken?"

"We believe that to be correct."

"So, I have a hard time seeing them in a negative light. Even admitting my biases, the murder didn't strike me as their general style, and we haven't found a thing on Student K to link him with yakuza. Then again ... you're NPA, so you would probably know better than I would. Considering that currently, yakuza involvement is outside of the scope of the case as I'm handling it, would you be able to run another side of the investigation into that?"

"I agree with you. It doesn't seem likely that the yakuza are directly involved in the murder. There may be a link between them, the Tsuruya family, and Koizumi Itsuki. But that's tenuous at best. Still, as I do want to help, and it may be related, that investigation is already underway."

Both men were quiet, Oishi putting out his cigarette and switching on the overhead fan. "I'm not sure I understand the connection between Koizumi and Student K, beyond both of them attending the same school and participating in the same club."

"Based on your investigation, we don't see anything, either. Even so, that's why we were asked to join you. The matters involving Koizumi Itsuki are centered around a substantial money-laundering franchise ... but while it's yakuza-related, we don't believe whatever this franchise is up to, it involves normal yakuza plots."

"So ... some giant conspiracy that's working in the shadows with yakuza, and Student K ran afoul of it?"

"That's possible. By way of apology, since I realize I'm bringing no useful information to your case, I submitted copies of your evidence files to the NPA main office ... subtly, of course."

Oishi raised an eyebrow. "Anything come of it? Our SOCO lab is doing their best, but they have to finish with the site by tonight - the scene was ordered released by the mayor by tomorrow morning for a memorial service, so cleaning needs to be finished by then."

"First of all, psychological profiling based on the nature of the wounds. The responsible person seems most likely very methodical. Order of injuries is not yet certain, but the stab wounds were all debilitating, each piercing a major organ. The slashes at no point joined with other slashes, like simple butchery. It was much more intentionally performed. 'Methodical' may not be much of a descriptor, but despite the brutality, we suspect that there was almost no emotion in the attack."

"Hmm." Oishi snorted, furrowing his brows. "That goes counter to my initial supposition, but we haven't got evidence to implicate anyone yet, anyway. What about a physical profile?"

"It seems very likely that a single person was involved in the use of the knife, as there is a common angle of attack - that coupled with the single void in the spatter suggesting our attacker is somewhat short for an adult male, or almost precisely average height for a high-school female - in any event, shorter than Student K. But ... these theories also make the assumption that somehow a smaller female physically overpowered a larger male, and still had a hand free to attack without leaving ligature marks or defensive wounds."

"That's what I'm getting stuck on. Alright, let me tell you some of my personal suspicions, then..."

XXX

Once the observation subject had transferred to her living quarters, Nagato Yuki once again tested the consensus. It was still fractured - it was always fractured - but it was less of the chaotic mess that it had been previously. Her requests were still not routing, though her direct access was intact.

When the observation subject was busy taking a shower, she double-checked her accesses, then reinforced local security. Once adequate safeguards and countermeasures were in place, she lifted an interdiction temporarily to try an extended-local query. Of the four immediately accessible interfaces, only one was aligned with a school similar enough to be trusted.

The one she had questioned replied, "Nagato-san, please try and emulate correct social contexts for this setting. Even as a backup, you must be adequately prepared at all times."

She returned on the same channel, "Kimidori. Consensus lost. Request information analysis and threat-index on local event (sub-channel) at primary observation locale (sub-channel two)."

"We've all lost the consensus. It's not an intense conflict; it's resolving even now. TTL for current issue is estimated to be eighty-four hours thirty-two minutes (truncated). Threat-index rejected as unnecessary. Information-analysis will proceed within parameters appropriate to local law enforcement for social adherence purposes."

"Demanding local presence for F2F interaction (high priority). Interdictions are in place; access will require at least one hour without my direct presence. Channel is suspect (EOL)."

With that, she allowed the interdictions to resume, cutting off the channel.

"Yuki," Haruhi asked, stepping out of the hallway, toweling her hair off, "did I hear you talking to someone?"

She turned her gaze away from the empty window and blinked at the observation subject. "A visitor."

Haruhi peered around, frowning. "I don't see anyone..."

"She is coming."

"Oh..." After that, Haruhi sat at the table, staring out the window and shivering. The motion suggested enduring extreme cold, but her sensors almost unanimously reported a temperature at the high end of the comfortable average. Further investigation suggested extreme anxiety, nervousness, or fear. Facial characteristics and behaviors continued to demonstrate depression. "Who is it?"

"Kimidori Emiri."

"I don't know her," the observation subject remarked, frowning. "Does she go to our school?"

"No."

"Ah," she said, before turning to gaze out the window.

Her proximity monitors and interdictions notified her on local sub-channels when the other interface approached. Following her social monitor's guidelines, she waited until the knock sounded before reacting. With coordinated, precise movements, Nagato Yuki rose to her feet and strode to the door. When it opened, Kimidori Emiri stood there, her expression fixed. She blinked twice upon seeing Suzumiya Haruhi, then relaxed her face into a gentle smile. "Hello," she said softly, opening a secondary channel once she stepped into the room.

"Justification for moving observation subject and extended direct interaction?" she asked privately.

"Hello," Nagato Yuki said back aloud. Her social monitor fed her the proper lines: "Kimidori Emiri, meet Suzumiya Haruhi. Suzumiya Haruhi, meet Kimidori Emiri."

On the private channel, as the door was shut: "Suspect severe tampering. State of consensus questionable. Primary observer's action are suspect. Subject is being momentarily sequestered to delay potential reaction/denial of observation to primary."

"Nice to meet you," the observation subject managed, though her inflections and posture indicated mild resentment and confusion.

"Nagato-san called me and said she had a friend over," Emiri explained, taking a seat at the table by the observation subject's side.

On the private channel, Emiri stated, "For efficiency, we may discard correct social context emulation on this channel at this juncture."

Nagato Yuki uploaded her observations over the last two days directly to Kimidori Emiri.

"How did you two meet?" Haruhi asked, and through her link with Emiri, Yuki's social monitor processed all of the cues it hadn't picked up the first time.

Smiling, Emiri said, "We're cousins, actually."

At an unspoken prompt from Emiri, Yuki bowed her head. "I will make tea," she said softly, walking into the kitchen. With all of the countermeasures she had set up, and her current link with Emiri, she was able to observe through the other interface regardless.

"Nagato-san isn't very good at talking to people," the second interface said.

"Yeah, I kind of get that," Haruhi mumbled.

"I used to call her Yuki-chan," Emiri confided, playing to her superior social monitor cues. "But she's growing up, and I think she doesn't like that as much. Even so, she's a good girl, and she cares very much for her friends. So when she called and said she was scared and depressed ... well. If you've been taking care of her, then thank you very much, Suzumiya-san."

"She's looking out for me more than I am for her," Haruhi admitted, shifting uncomfortably. "Um, say, Nagato doesn't have a television, and I didn't feel like going through the rain to find a newspaper. D...do you know anything about the investigation at Kitago?"

"Hmm ... where's that? I'm afraid it doesn't sound familiar." A quick logic check between the two interfaces, fed through the social monitor: "I've been on the train all day; I got Yuki-chan's call yesterday and rushed over as quickly as possible."

"Oh," Haruhi said, frowning. "It's ... the school that Nagato and I go to. Did she tell you anything about what's happened?"

"Not really," Emiri replied apologetically. "What has happened to upset poor little Yuki-chan?"

"I'm not sure," Haruhi admitted. "Um ... our school was closed today, and yesterday too. The police closed it, which I thought was unusual ... but then a detective came around and asked some questions. He showed me a picture... Pictures of my classmates, and one of my teachers. He didn't say anything specific, but I'm afraid that ... something happened to..." She trailed off and swallowed nervously. "H...his phone's not picking up," she said instead. "Except for Nagato, I can't reach anyone from school."

Emiri's social monitor dissected the commentary, and she frowned. "Oh, dear," she said sympathetically. "That does sound bad." Across her connection with Yuki, she agreed that information analysis and threat-index should both be authorized.

"Y...yeah. But, I don't know ... so I'm... I'm still waiting." Haruhi bit her lip, glancing over as Yuki strode into the room, bearing a tray with a kettle and three tea cups. "Um, I'll be right back, I'm going to make some phone calls."

Emiri politely offered to close the private link so that Yuki could release her interdictions, but the other interface dismissed it as unnecessary. The two communed in silence as Haruhi rose and stepped into the hallway, Yuki allowing the radio waves through the barriers.

The identifier was indexed in Yuki's memory already, but Emiri waited until the voice-mail answered, eavesdropping on the signal. "You've reached my phone; you should know my name, but you're probably going to call me Kyon anyway. Leave a message."

"H...hey, Kyon, it's me, Haruhi ... again. S...so, I take back what I said earlier, I was just... It doesn't matter! Those messages don't count. I wanted to tell you that... I just... W...well, be okay, and call me back, alright? W...whatever happens, you'd better call me back! If you don't, Nagato and I will never forgive you!" Then came a sound that neither Emiri or Yuki needed to check with their social monitors to understand; a wracking sob. "P...please be okay..."

Emiri analyzed the current situation. The observation subject's behavior was consistent with what was known of mild human emotional trauma, which wasn't that different from the emotional trauma of other sentient beings. However, her ultimate behavior had yet to be determined, due to the fact that the boy's status was unknown to her. While they were on the potential verge of unforeseen data creation, the current state flew in the face of the expectations and long-term goals of the Integrated Data Entity.

"You've reached the phone of the chief of financial operations for Nishinomiya Heavy Industries, Suzu-" The message was cut short by a sharp tone.

"Dad, it's Haruhi, just thought I'd let you know that I'm staying at a friend's house, so don't freak out if I don't answer the house phone. Call me on my cell if you need me."

Yuki offered her earlier analysis of the events that might have led to the current situation. Another interface had most likely tried to provoke this reaction. However, no logical explanation for this behavior could be found. Even if it suited the goals of the primary's faction, it ran against the consensus. And every interface that had a reasonably high indexed probability of encountering the observation subject had gone through screening by multiple other factions to test for hidden agendas.

"Hello, you've reached the voice-mail of Koizumi Itsuki! I wish I could answer your calls, but something came up; it may be a while before I can get back to you!"

"Um, hey, Koizumi-kun, this is Haruhi, again. Where the hell is everyone? Give me a call back ... don't you be missing, too!"

Neither analysis was contradictory, so they used the outputs of both. The answer they reached was logical, but alarming.

The primary couldn't be trusted, and the consensus wouldn't be able to route the request they would need to pass through without extending the division. Given reasonable predictive models of decay, they would need to act on their own to resolve things before they spiraled out of control.

Emiri flagged several emotional markers in a simulated feed of the observation subject's emotional state with regards to a specific data set, and warned Yuki of concurrent, nearly identical markers in her own emotive core.

Yuki ignored the warning; those processes had been moved into a sandbox environment with logged output for later consideration. She had been notified in an emergency uplink the previous day, shortly after entering Suzumiya Haruhi's home. She could examine the logs, with context referral, during idle cycles.

The next call did not route, though both interfaces followed the radio waves to observe its attempts. Just over a full sixty seconds of ringing passed before Haruhi sighed and stopped the attempt. Trudging back into the main room, she took her seat at the table, mumbling, "Sorry."

"It's no trouble at all," Emiri said cheerily, modifying the attributes of the tea to transform it into a mild sedative. "Nagato-san made some wonderful tea."

"Right," Haruhi said quietly, taking her seat at the table and sipping it with a blank expression. "So, school is going to be open again tomorrow."

Emiri and Yuki both calculated tremendous risk from attending. However, they could not act counter to the primary without arousing her suspicions. To say nothing of direct interference with the observation subject that bordered on a violation of all established guidelines.

"Yes," Yuki agreed. "We shall leave early."

"Yeah," Haruhi sighed, rubbing at one eye tiredly. "Um, Nagato, do you mind if I go to sleep now?"

Yuki shook her head, rising to prepare a bed in her room. Yuki's reasoning was that she had spent all of her time in the apartment in only the living room. The physical reality of the second room could be replaced with a long-term solution that might overwrite the current situation. Emiri's reasoning was that if Haruhi had asked Yuki to share a bed the night before, she would find a similar situation comforting, which could provide a small buffer against the likely outcome of the morning. Suzumiya Haruhi was an innately illogical emotional being, so small measures to provide stability, even if they might grate against the original design of the consensus, would in reality only be countering the damage the primary had already done.

Once Haruhi was lying down and Yuki shut the light off, the two interfaces were alone again. In perfect unison, each raised a wrist to the other's mouth, canine teeth sinking through the organic outer flesh and injecting a stream of nanites for later secure transmissions via paired particles. That bandwidth would be narrow and precious, but the security of their current environment was unlikely to exist after the primary became aware of interference.

Disengaging the link, Emiri sighed, falling back to vocal channels, though modulated on a frequency that the observation subject wouldn't receive. "For maximum efficiency, I propose you remain in proximity to the subject at all times. Use the combat packages I've given you if required; they are specialized against the primary. However, unless we attempt to directly control the subject, reversing time is beyond our ability."

"Direct control is likely to result in failure, and even if successful, there is a high risk of the Integrated Data Entity being revealed," Nagato Yuki responded on the same modulated vocal frequency. "The last observation of the required holistic wave-front lies with the primary. Accurate emulation is unlikely."

"Therefore, we will need to find the time traveler. Temporal transition technology must be attained to attempt a greater understanding of the tools at our disposal. In the meantime, I will pursue what holistic wave front echoes reside in the environment."

"We have superior command control at this juncture," Nagato Yuki noted. "With your optimized anti-radical combat packages we could easily overpower the primary and forcibly query her motives, revealing them to the consensus if required."

"My faction and I do not approve of that course of action yet," Emiri countered. "The primary's actions will reveal much of her motive; you were placed to observe, so expand observational parameters to include the primary. At this point, any new data revealed to the consensus will delay re-fusion."

"I am unable to calculate the impact of bringing time-travel technology to the Integrated Data Entity. It is possible that this action will also delay re-fusion beyond usable parameters."

Emiri blinked, processing this for a long moment. "If required, our factions can consolidate and abandon the integration, using the temporal motive element to re-fuse at an earlier instance of temporal reality."

"We do not yet know if that is possible."

"In that case, we have to bet on it, don't we?"

Nagato Yuki parsed the statement, understood the meaning of the words. Did not know how Emiri could speak them so. "I do not understand."

"You will. You chose a more complete understanding of the organic emotive process over a better equipped social monitor, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"Then trust me. You will understand."

XXX

For the first time in a long time, Itsuki was glad for the Shinjin. Not just because of the closed space, which had allowed him to rescue Mori, and not just because he needed something so ridiculous to feel 'special'.

But for once, he was grateful for the distraction.

Far from being just a distraction, though, there were vast numbers to deal with, and by the time it was done, he was exhausted. The closed spaces had gotten so involved that he'd had enough time to ask all nine of the other espers to come together on a hill north of Nishinomiya to witness the final collapse.

He was ashamed to realize he had never been allowed to learn their names. After watching the pieces of the closed space crash into nothing, tumbling around them as they were forcibly ejected from that non-space into corporeal reality, he gazed across his comrades, some of them studying him and the others in return.

A perfectly 'average' slice of humanity from all across the world, now collected in one place. "Well," a tall, broad-shouldered blond man said, frowning, his accent thickly Russian. "This is the first time I've seen a closed space so big it crossed an entire sea. I'm not getting back to Khabarovsk soon."

"It was a bad one," a Caucasian woman that Itsuki would have pegged for a housewife agreed. "And now we've got the problem of you asking us to stay here, and us without a way home." Her Japanese was almost impeccable, by contrast.

A somewhat overweight man with a deep tan, of no nationality that Itsuki could readily identify, gave a grunt, raising an eyebrow at him questioningly.

"Are you aware of the state of the Organization?" Itsuki asked, wishing he'd had time to rehearse, maybe write a speech for the occasion. And that he weren't so unbearably tired.

An assortment of head-shakes and nods were the responses he received.

"The Organization, as it stands, is collapsing in on itself. There's infighting, and my handler, at least, was nearly killed earlier..." He frowned, checking his watch. "Last night."

A few of the faces across from him showed shock, or at least surprise. Most did not.

"That aside, this being our first unified meeting, I asked you all here to propose that we form our own cabal."

"Bravely spoken," the tanned man said, his voice carrying an equally unidentifiable accent, his words coming across as stiff, carried with deep intonation. "But you are youngest among us. You will lead this new group?"

"Maybe, and maybe not," Itsuki said with a shrug. "I'm not going to try and declare myself dictator. I just want to express an idea I think we all could believe in."

A very thin, tall blonde woman in what was an inappropriately warm dress for Nishinomiya's climate raised an eyebrow at him. "Right," she said. "So, what's your plan?"

"The Organization, even in pieces, values us too much to move against us. They don't need to know we're allied together pursuing our own goals. Let's face it - they've been using us for years. It's time we turned the tables on them."

"Assuming we go along with it," the blonde woman grumbled, rolling her eyes, "what's our goal?"

"We all know that our powers come from one person," Itsuki explained. "Suzumiya Haruhi."

A unified nod from the other espers.

"Right now, you can feel her emotional state, the same as I can."

An uncomfortable series of nods at this.

"In physical reality, the cause for this is that one of her classmates ... no. I'll be honest here. The boy she liked more than anyone else ... was murdered."

Nine pairs of eyes fixed on him sharply, exhaustion ignored for the moment.

"Who has done this?" the tanned man asked, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"That I don't know. And I don't know if she's found out for certain that he's dead, but it seems a given that she suspects. If the magnitude of what we've faced so far was merely her suspicion, her subconscious fear... When she learns the truth of it, I believe it will be much ... much ... worse."

"Sparing the dramatics for the moment," the Caucasian woman interjected smoothly, "I understand your point of things getting worse. Even so, what does the Organization have to do with this current issue? Or vice versa?"

"It's possible that someone in the Organization orchestrated the murder," Itsuki said, frowning. "I can't prove that. And I don't have any idea who actually did it."

"But," the Russian man said, thoughtfully, "it is possible that you are the responsible party, yes? Assuming your story is even true."

Itsuki closed his eyes, showing them the honest and truthful face that he had never shown to his deceased classmate. "Kyon was my friend, too," he said quietly. "The Organization placed me in school with Suzumiya Haruhi. As it's been pointed out, I'm the youngest of us ... and very likely, one of the youngest people in the Organization in general. So I made the ideal transfer student to work with her." He swallowed a lump in his throat. "She's my friend, too. And now, the Organization has sent my double to Canada, so there's no way I can try and talk to her and comfort her.

"We all know what her emotional turmoil turns into. I don't know if she has any friends left to look after her. I doubt any of them are able to look out for Organization factions that think it would be easier to kill her, just as Kyon was killed!"

"Think logically," the Russian man said first, frowning. "Killing her would solve many issues, wouldn't it?"

"Suck on a rock and die, you git!" the blonde woman snarled, glaring at the larger man. "What kind of damage do you have to think, 'Oh, killing her will make everything better!'?"

The Russian adopted a disgusted expression. "Calm down," he said in a dour voice. "I chose my words poorly. I only tried to see from the eyes of those who planned the cruelty."

"Watch your mouth anyway!" the woman growled, crossing her arms over her chest in a huff.

The Russian grumbled something in his own language and turned his face away.

The tanned man looked pointedly at Itsuki, who shook his head. No more passively observing, he reminded himself. "Let's try and all be reasonable," he said, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. "Right now, we are just exchanging words. I would like to think we all have the goal of ending as few lives as possible. Aside from which, your logic aside, some Organization theorists believe that if Suzumiya Haruhi is killed, our world will end."

The Russian man spat, rubbing one hand across the front of his face. "The girl is a ticking time bomb. Whoever killed the boy is stone stupid," he assessed.

"We can agree on that," the blonde woman said sullenly, still glowering. Most of the other espers nodded their hesitant agreement.

"Very well," the tanned man said, holding up a hand. "We are talking in circles around the point."

"Exactly right," Itsuki agreed, slipping on his mask from long practice, trying to give a weak, but soothing smile. "Ultimately, my plan is to use the Organization to the best of our abilities, while working together. I want to see if we can protect Suzumiya Haruhi, but more importantly, I need to try and get enough information out of the Organization, er, possibly from your handlers, if they're accessible, on the other factions."

"Other factions of the Organization?" the Caucasian woman asked, frowning. "Or is there something else...?"

"I may have been briefed in slightly more than you," Itsuki admitted. "Now, I know that in addition to ourselves, there are time travelers, and ... the Organization calls them 'TFEI's, which means they're some sort of ... interface for an extra-dimensional entity that exists outside of space."

"Aliens?" the blonde woman asked, blinking.

"So, we find the time traveler, and keep the boy from being killed?" the Russian asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's not much of a plan," Itsuki admitted, bowing his head. "But right now, it's all I've got to act on."

"I will go with you," the tanned man said, first. "Your goal is noble, and your heart pure."

Again, Itsuki wondered at his nationality and culture, but restrained himself to a grateful nod.

"Ah, I don't know that I buy this love angle your trying to work in," the blonde said with a shrug, "or any 'purity of heart' crap, but I'm all for it. I like the idea of sticking it to them what's been sticking it to us, anyway."

"I, also, will agree," the Russian assented.

An older, pale-skinned man rose from his sitting position on the ground, then abruptly spat out a stream of thickly accented English, too quickly for Itsuki to follow.

The Caucasian woman blinked, then shook her head and translated for the group: "My Japanese isn't quite sharp enough to follow everything you said, but I got the gist of it. Approving the long-term solution, what do we do in the meantime? How do we get back to our handlers to start trying to milk them for information? Once we have information, how do we relay it to one another? Our phones are paid for by the Organization, so they're tracked. Our mail could easily be monitored, and will certainly be too slow."

Itsuki sighed, looking away. "For the first part, we can leave the same way we convened. I can feel closed space forming not far away. Hopefully, we'll have a few-day grace period before the Shinjin start emerging, but I won't bet on that.

"Secondly, closed space is our space, and unless we bring them in, the Organization can't follow us there. If it comes down to it, we can physically exchange letters, passing them around as we need. We can keep one another informed. Realistically, I think that's our only option."

After that, the rest of the espers rushed to throw in their support. Relaxing in the first time after literal hours of Shinjin combat, Itsuki allowed a genuine smile to come to his lips. "Thank you," he said, bowing his head to his fellow espers.

XXX

The detective and his NPA counterpart met again, this time on the balcony that Oishi preferred.

Oishi nodded at Akasaka and broached the uneasy silence first, "We don't have enough evidence to act yet. At this point, we're basically grasping at straws, and the case has gotten worse due to the number of students associated with the SOS Brigade that we cannot reach. Suzumiya Haruhi's phone is off, but according to Nagato Yuki, they're together and she's asleep."

"Asakura Ryouko?" the NPA representative asked, rubbing his chin.

"Hasn't moved, still sounds too cheerful to me."

"Asahina Mikuru?"

"Still missing. Anything on Koizumi Itsuki?"

"Yeah ... we reviewed security camera footage. Koizumi Itsuki hasn't left the country - a close look-alike with his identification has."

Oishi ran his hands through his hair, shaking his head slowly. "Is that so?"

Akasaka give a grim nod.

"I don't like this."

"Me, either," the NPA representative agreed. "We've identified the look-alike, a Daimonji Satoshi from Chiba, Tokyo. We haven't updated Interpol that it's Daimonji instead of Koizumi ... paperwork slowdown. My personal reasons are that ... and forgive me if this seems reaching ... information given to Interpol may leak back to whatever franchise or organization Koizumi Itsuki is involved with.

The detective snorted. "All of that's above my pay grade. You're the one in charge of NPA-related investigations, Akasaka-kun."

"True enough. In the meantime, I'm putting together an internal task force to try and track down Asahina Mikuru - we'll forensically profile her apartment later tonight."

"And we still don't even know if whatever that is, it's part of the murder investigation... Anything else?"

"Maybe ... but you won't like this much either."

Oishi sighed, drawing a cigarette from his pack and offering one to the NPA agent. Akasaka shook his head, and Oishi shrugged, lighting up, his eyes going up to the evening sky, still clouded from the sudden storm. "I'm not liking much about this entire case," he commented, putting his lighter away. "But go ahead."

"We submitted an ultra-high-definition copy of the note found on the victim to handwriting analysis."

"Mm. Nice resource to have available. And?"

"It fits the profile of a typical high school girl. Right-handed."

Oishi's eyes narrowed in annoyance, fixing the NPA representative with a dark stare. "That's it?"

"That's it," the other man answered, shrugging apologetically. "It hit every marker for perfect averages dead-on. Our chief analyst said that he couldn't imagine making such a perfectly average example of writing with months to prepare, and a laboratory of equipment. Nothing to suggest it was a forgery, no microscopic mistakes ... nothing. It was handwritten, but it may as well have been printed from a machine designed to hit every average on the nose."

Oishi furrowed his brow, blowing out a large puff of smoke. "Okay," he said, shaking his head slightly. "Fine. The school reopens tomorrow. We're going to sponsor a memorial book in the name of Student K, and collect samples from every student in the school. Anyone who doesn't sign the book will be asked to fill out a form so we can have a complete screen. If this mysterious perfectly average handwriting belongs to a student at Kitago, then we should find it."

"That sounds like a good idea," Akasaka agreed, nodding. "It's too bad we couldn't hold the scene; for all we know, a sample of the writing we're looking for could be there, and we didn't know, because the NPA forensic unit isn't linked with SOCO."

"Spilt milk. Aside from which, I have a strange suspicion that it would be too easy, if it were true."

Akasaka nodded uneasily. "Anything I should know about tomorrow's plans, generally?"

"We'll have officers at all entrances to the school," Oishi answered, grimacing. "All students will be checked for weapons and identification before admission. We don't want to make the students uncomfortable, but we're also keeping a force of twenty officers on standby out of sight should any incident arise, and I'll be on-scene with a handful of detectives. I want to try and observe student reactions - you're welcome to join me. Aida-chan might be upset, but I'll bump him from the roster for you."

Akasaka gave another uneasy nod. "I appreciate that. I don't know that I'll be much use, but on your invitation, I'll be there."

"Well, the police checkpoints will be in place at school entrances until we produce a suspect, or the mayor gets tired of the negative publicity and has them removed. In addition, we'll be keeping officers along the perimeter at all hours to prevent weapons being hidden on campus, and the school has discontinued all club activities for the rest of this month and all of next month."

"Is that a bit extreme?"

"Chief's orders. It's an election year, so..."

"Right. Politics."

The two men shared an uneasy sigh. 


	4. Chapter three: The third morning

Error in Calculation

Chapter Three: The Third Morning

A 'Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' fanfiction.

Disclaimer: The novel 'Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu'/'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. ;)

Additionally, a character or two is borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07, but don't read too much into that.  


* * *

The third day was the worst so far.

She woke up in the same bed as Yuki again, though the smaller girl's eyes were open when she roused. Did she even sleep? Was she worried about Kyon, too?

Yuki said that Emiri was resting, presumably in the other room, but when Haruhi surreptitiously tried the door, it was locked tight. It didn't even rattle against the catch.

The slight girl still didn't speak much, but made breakfast for both of them, and then led the way to school from her apartment. The rain had stopped, but cloud cover trapped the sweltering heat close to the city surface, making the trudge even less pleasant than usual. Despite her tiny frame, Yuki seemed to ignore the heat.

Haruhi wondered how she could keep her cool, but was beginning to realize there was an awful lot about the bookworm she'd never learned.

They got to school early to find police waiting at all gates, checking identifications of student and teacher alike before allowing entry. Outside of the front gate, a small crowd of reporters stood, some photographing the school, most taking down notes. The close-mouthed police officers said nothing, except to ask for identification, and did not respond to any questioning.

All of the classrooms were closed and locked, with the students instructed to assemble as they had for the opening ceremony, to listen to an address from the principal. She heard the words he said, but the meaning somehow escaped her. The gist of it matched her fears, but the only part she was able to remain cognizant of was the fact that today would not be a class day, but a day of memorial, and that all club activities would be suspended until further notice. After a further repetition of the warning that students should travel in groups, they were released.

The teachers led the way solemnly, streaming towards the main building to unlock the classrooms. Her eyes picked out Okabe, his million-dollar smile shelved for the moment, replaced with a sour grimace. She spotted Kunikida, too but he looked like everyone else; how she felt. Shaken and unbelieving.

Despite all that, she clung to the hopes that she would see him again, and lingered in the field, searching. Yuki stood by her side, watching the other students silently. After a few wasted minutes, the pair of them hurried to class 1-5. A strong smell of bleach lingered in the air, even with all the windows opened. Some of the desks and chairs were unmistakably new. But when she approached her own desk, the knot of students that had gotten there first parted, letting her see the seat in front of hers.

On the surface of his desk stood a small vase with a bouquet of white flowers.

She could only stare, her heart skipping erratically.

She felt the classroom around her spinning, and fell to her knees, still wishing she could refute it. The memorial flowers on Kyon's desk ... she could try and tell herself the principal had never said Kyon, because he had used the boy's real name. She knew that name, had remembered it and treasured it, waiting for the day she could call him by that instead of his nickname, to watch his impossible, implacable expression vanish, replaced with a surprised smile...

...but that day could never come, now. She blinked away tears she hadn't realized were forming in her eyes, until a hand patted her shoulder, and someone held a handkerchief out to her. She took it numbly, only realizing after the fact who had given it to her. At her side, glaring at the surrounding students as though daring them to say a single word or continue staring at her, was Taniguchi.

She unsteadily climbed to her feet, turning to face him shakily. His assumed sophistication and suave was nowhere in sight. He didn't look or behave like a stalker. For a single moment, she actually felt something like a kindred spirit in him; they both knew, they both lost...

His eyes didn't meet hers. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"W...why were they asking about you?" she returned, just as quietly.

If anything, Taniguchi's expression became darker, fell even further. "I found him," he said hoarsely. "They asked me a lot of questions. I don't want to talk about it." Then his gaze met hers, and the illusion of a shared moment vanished. She could see the hurt in his eyes, but it could never approach what she was feeling. He would never understand, not truly. He hadn't changed that much from middle school, even if he wasn't being his usual, desperate self at the moment.

She nodded, then turned away from Kyon's desk, plodding listlessly towards the hallway. Yuki was still there, waiting for her, watching as always. But before she could reach the doorway, another familiar voice reached her.

"Suzumiya-san! How are you doing?"

She ignored the question, taking another step forward, until that same voice called out again.

"Isn't this astounding?"

"Hey," she heard Taniguchi growl, "just leave her alone, alright?"

"I don't need you to look out for me," she retorted, realizing she wasn't certain which student she was rebuking, the unusually stoic Taniguchi, or the ever-cheerful Ryouko.

Not Taniguchi, she decided, clutching the handkerchief he'd lent her.

The class representative's signature smile had only faded the slightest bit. "I'm surprised," Ryouko said after a moment, and Taniguchi sighed in disgust, turning away and taking his seat. The other students watched them silently.

"What's so surprising?" Haruhi asked, a current of emotions running through her ... but she didn't have time to feel them. They didn't matter.

"It's strange, really," Ryouko said, her tone musing. "Just a few days ago, you were sitting behind him, and you said you wanted the world to be more interesting. That all of this was boring! But now that something happens, you don't seem very interested. What a pity! I suppose he died for nothing?"

The emotions she had been trying to deny exploded to the surface, and everything happened at once. Taniguchi stood so abruptly he knocked over both his chair and desk, turning around to glare at the class representative. The surrounding students flung themselves backward against the walls of the classroom, eyes and mouths widening in stupefied amazement.

Someone was screaming promises of murder at Asakura Ryouko, and Haruhi herself felt vaguely bemused as she watched her own fist slam into the other girl's cheek. A gasp escaped the surrounding students, and Kunikida launched himself at Taniguchi, hanging onto the larger boy and pulling him back before he could storm towards Ryouko and get involved. Okabe merely stared, frozen in horror, useless as always.

Inexplicably, someone seized Haruhi almost instantly, pulling her away before she could try throwing another punch. Ryouko's smile had faded an additional, tiny increment, but her expression was more puzzled than anything else. Other than her head turning slightly to one side from the blow, she hardly seemed to react at all.

It wasn't until Haruhi was dragged into the hall that she realized the screaming voice was her own, and she released it with a broken sob, collapsing into whoever was dragging her away.

XXX

Nagato Yuki waited for the precise moment when she calculated that Kimidori Emiri and her faction would agree that matters had escalated to the point of required action before intervening. Her own view noted the risks of the primary retaliating against the observation subject, or doing something potentially more damaging.

"Take care, okay?" the primary called to the observation subject, though her gaze connected with Nagato Yuki's. "I hope you feel better soon, Suzumiya-san!"

Nagato denied all open-channel requests and burnt a tiny amount of the limited PPC bandwidth she shared with Emiri: "Observation subject in critical emotional state; primary is attempting to catalyze reaction."

While her senses and sensors were evenly divided between the primary and her observation target, she was aware of the figures charging down the hall towards them. Local law enforcement official sub-administrator Oishi, and assistant functionaries.

She appended: "Possible issues with local law enforcement. Observation subject's emotional state will be further stressed."

Emiri's response was carefully considered: "Acknowledged. Will coordinate at nearest adherent spacial coordinates; can intervene on emergency signal if required."

The observation subject went limp in her grasp, and her social monitor was outputting a continuous log of error activity, so she carefully released her grip. Instead of rushing back towards the primary, as her predictive modules had suggested, the observation subject spun, seizing her and bawling into her uniform. Her local libraries identified the action as a gesture requesting solace.

She ignored her social monitor and gently hugged the taller girl, as the large form of Oishi stopped directly between her and the primary. "Alright," he said, voice tinged with modulation indicating vast emotional stress, though at a level below the standard threshold for normal human recognition. "That's quite enough of that. Suzumiya-san, Nagato-san, come with me." He turned around. "Asakura-san, please come with my," voice hitch, indicating an almost undetectable hesitation; uncertainty; the following information was either inaccurate or an obfuscation, "partner, Akasaka-san. Taniguchi-san, you too."

"Pass," Taniguchi spat. "I don't need to share a car with that bitch."

Even from behind, Nagato registered body language indicative of increased frustration in Oishi's frame. "Fine," he growled. "Yamada-kun, Taniguchi wants a return to our hospitality instead of a ride home."

"Gladly accepted," Taniguchi's voice replied, steeped in tones and inflections that conveyed significant measures of derision. "A holding cell is more comfortable than being in the same car as Asakura."

The collective gasp and intake of breath from the surrounding students at that remark triggered a reaction from Nagato's usually dormant emotive processor. She didn't have the time to analyze the reason for it, but her database quickly identified it as satisfaction.

Taniguchi's tone suddenly softened, and he added, "Despite all that ... my only request is that I get to write a farewell message in Kyon's memorial book before I go."

"Yeah," Oishi grumbled. "I've got a heart. No matter the circumstances, everyone will get a chance for that. Akasaka-san?"

More output escaped Nagato's emotive processor before she returned it to the sandboxed environment. The observation subject was still in her arms, trembling with various emotions that had yet to be sorted. The vast majority of them were negative, and Nagato briefly wondered how a simpler life form could possibly cope with trying to process them all, before archiving the idea for later consideration. "We would like to go," she said aloud.

Oishi turned around, still frowning. "You don't want to sign?

Nagato considered the significance of the gesture briefly. It was part of the process of identifying that an organic life form had ceased functioning. But even if she were to write in the book, what would she say? Her emotive processor registered several answers for her, and she suppressed it again. "Not at this time," she answered, following a social cue from her monitor and turning her gaze to the observation subject's sobbing frame.

"Well ... that's fair. Alright, come with me, please."

Suzumiya Haruhi's tears continued until they had reached the edge of the school property, where Kimidori Emiri was already waiting. "Oh, dear," she said, halting a few steps short of Oishi, when the detective fixed her with a wary gaze. "Ah, sir, Nagato Yuki is my cousin; I'm Kimidori Emiri. May I accompany her?"

"Cousin," Oishi repeated, both interfaces sharing a quick glance at the doubt hidden in his tone. "Fine. I was just taking these girls home."

The observation subject was reluctant to let go of her, so the two of them sat in the back seat. Emiri sat in the front, next to Oishi, and the interface with the better social module directed Oishi to the apartment building where Nagato Yuki and the primary both resided.

XXX

Itsuki woke up breathing heavily, body shaking with the intensity and ferocity of emotions running through his head. Suzumiya's emotions, he realized, before all thought was blanked away momentarily.

Mori was leaning over him, the back of her hand pressed to his forehead. Her eyes were full of concern, and he realized she'd found time to change clothing to something more casual. She offered him a comforting smile and rose away. "Sorry," she said. "You seemed to be having a troubled dream."

He sat up, rubbing at his face. "She found out," he groaned. Suzumiya's horror and fury echoed in the back of his skull, each throbbing reverberation igniting another spark of closed space somewhere. He had been right, unfortunately; his fellow espers could travel nearly anywhere through the overlapped closed spaces. Shinjin were already stirring in several of them.

"So, is it bad?" she asked.

Something on his face conveyed it before he could speak.

"I see," she said, sighing. "I'll get you something to eat. Arakawa got you some new clothes, and this is the master bedroom, so you can use the shower if you like. Would you care for coffee?"

"Real coffee," he answered, rubbing his face again. "No cream, no sugar." After a moment, he realized he was addressing Mori, not a servant, and added, "Please."

Mori raised an eyebrow, but nodded, leaving the room. He rose to his feet, stripping off the high school uniform he had exhaustedly collapsed in. By his reckoning, he hadn't had nearly enough sleep, given everything he'd already been through.

He stumbled into the shower and tried to remember arriving at the safe-house. He didn't have a key, and didn't want to be seen approaching - but fortune, so to speak, had been on his side. Closed space overlapped the apartment, so he was able to cross back into the real world in the main room. Other than Arakawa seizing him and holding a knife to his throat for the few seconds it took recognition to kick in, it had worked, too.

After cleaning himself off, feeling slightly more awake, but still bone-tired, he walked back into 'his' master bedroom, and changed into the new clothes that Mori had set out for him. Not too new - the tags had been taken off, and they'd been washed at least once. When he was finished dressing, he stepped into the main room, where Mori was just setting a steaming mug of coffee on the table. A glance outside revealed an uncomfortably monochrome sky, pounding rain hammering against the windows.

"Good morning," he said bleakly, falling into his chair and sipping cautiously at his coffee. Untouched, as he preferred. Mori took a seat opposite him after setting a plate before him. He eagerly dug into the oversized omelet she had prepared, shoveling it away too quickly to taste it.

"Good morning," she said, smiling somewhat doubtfully. "Will that be enough? I'm not sure if it helps, when you spend that time in closed space, but..."

"It's fine," he said around a mouthful. "I got the other espers on my side, more or less. Any luck on your side?"

"Arakawa established contact with the Tamaru brothers," Mori said with a nod. "We have fairly good, but not flawless intel from the police."

Itsuki nodded, taking another sip of his coffee.

"They don't know where Asahina Mikuru is either. Or who killed ... your friend."

"Do they have any suspects?"

"Neither Tamaru is central on the case; they're both patrol officers, and that's detective work. However, there are 'persons of interest' in the murder. Nagato Yuki, Suzumiya Haruhi, Asakura Ryouko, Asahina Mikuru, and ... yourself."

Itsuki snorted. "Having my look-alike leave the country would probably do that," he grumbled. "That's fine. I won't go anywhere I can't slip into closed space at a moment's notice. Nagato's a TFEI ... and they really think Suzumiya-san could have done it? Anyway, I don't know much about Asakura Ryouko. Class representative for 1-5? Who's she with?"

"We can't see their point of view, and we know a lot they can't imagine," Mori answered with a shrug. "So, they may believe Suzumiya did it. It's not like we could tell them otherwise. Unfortunately, my best guess is that Asakura Ryouko is another TFEI. More importantly, we have an update on Suzumiya's whereabouts."

The esper raised an eyebrow, still shoveling his breakfast away.

"She's currently staying with Nagato Yuki ... so unless Suzumiya imposed on her, Nagato or her superiors have chosen to act directly."

Pausing to swallow and catch his breath, Itsuki shook his head. "So, none of their suspects are plausible ... unless it was Asahina Mikuru. I've always suspected her behavior and outward appearance were a ploy ... but I can't see that she would bother with something like that. She could crush Suzumiya-san's will through less violent but equally, um, direct methods, if that was actually her goal."

"Seduction instead of murder?"

Itsuki resumed eating at a slower pace, nodding, his face coloring slightly at Mori's casual mention of the word. What was wrong with him, where he could discuss murder without flinching, but the idea of Kyon being seduced bothered him? Maybe it was that he didn't see Kyon actually falling for it?

He suddenly didn't want to think about it any further, and didn't feel like eating any more.

"Well, even though you believe Asahina-san wouldn't do such a thing, others in the Organization might think differently. So we have to bank on Asahina-san being in someone's custody, even if we don't know who."

Itsuki pushed his plate away and wiped his mouth with a napkin, pulling the large mug of coffee closer. "I don't think trying to pull her into closed space is going to cut it if she's in the custody of a TFEI," he said sourly. "We have to hope it's specifically the Organization, and hopefully somewhat nearby. If it's not..."

Arakawa turned from fiddling with a radio scanner, pulling his headphones off. "Asakura has been taken into police custody, along with Taniguchi. Suzumiya and Nagato are being questioned as well. According to Tamaru's last message, there's another girl with them - Kimidori Emiri."

"Another girl?" Itsuki mused. "Not a friend of Suzumiya-san's ... unless she somehow missed all of our monitoring?"

"Tamaru said he overheard Kimidori claiming to be a cousin of Nagato's," Arakawa clarified. "So she would likely also be a TFEI."

"Three TFEIs?" Mori pondered, frowning. "We're going to be disastrously out of our depth if we try and confront them. Well, Itsuki ... what do you think?"

He drained his coffee, contemplating. "Maybe we're giving them too much credit," he assessed, setting the empty mug down. "This could be a long shot, but how confident are we that the Integrated Data Entity is united? Our own Organization just split ... could they also have faults?"

"No one and nothing is perfect," Mori agreed, glancing at Arakawa.

Arakawa picked up the headphones, and held them against one ear. "Does this mean that we take the police theories at face value and look at Asakura Ryouko as the prime suspect?" he asked.

"Until a better explanation comes along," Itsuki agreed. "So ... we assume that her faction, or whatever, decides to ... kill Kyon, but Nagato's faction doesn't agree. Nagato then watches Suzumiya ... but we don't know why that happens, either. And this doesn't account for Asahina Mikuru. Once we bring in TFEIs who are willing to kill..." He swallowed, a sour taste filling his mouth. "We don't even know for certain that she's still alive. And if she is alive, the smartest thing for her to do would be to leave this timeframe immediately, and she's not stupid."

"More questions than answers," Mori sighed, shaking her head. "This makes the new TFEI a whole new book of questions."

"Too much to think about," Itsuki said, staring into his empty coffee mug. "I'm going to try and see if I can take out some isolated closed spaces and keep in touch with the other espers."

"Take care of yourself," Mori insisted before he shifted into that colorless world and embraced his power.

XXX

Akasaka Mamoru watched Suzumiya Haruhi and Nagato Yuki follow Oishi down the hall, then turned around, nodding at Yamada and the other detective, who he hadn't learned the name of. From a technical standpoint, despite posing as a detective, he didn't have the authority to perform police actions; he was supposed to behave in a more administrative capacity.

Taniguchi allowed himself to be led away without complaint after writing a brief note in the memorial book. Akasaka then took the book and flipped to another page, presenting it to Asakura. She looked at it curiously, then gave a tiny shrug and scrawled her own message, which he glanced at: "It was fun, Kyon-kun~! Thank you for watching over Suzumiya-san~!"

He ignored the shiver down his spine, then set the book back on the podium before the trembling form of Okabe. "Apologies for the disruption," he said to the class at large.

"Yes, sorry for any trouble!" Asakura Ryouko said sweetly, bowing to her class. "Do we have to go now?"

He nodded at her warily, leading the way out the door. Once they were in the hall, though he suspected a few students would be able to hear him anyway, he instructed, "Walk ahead of me, please. Straight down the corridor and to the first floor - front entrance."

"Okay," she chirped, still agreeable.

What was it that Oishi had gotten from her? There was something undeniably off about the girl, and he doubted that he would need the expertise of the NPA handwriting analyst to positively identify her handwriting as a match to the note found on Student K's body. He understood what Oishi meant about Nagato Yuki sharing some of the same traits, and he expected that the detective had also caught the fact that despite her small frame and supposedly lower athletic scores ... she was able to physically restrain Suzumiya Haruhi without visible effort.

It would be a minor abuse of standards and regulations, but they had the easily readied excuse that Asakura Ryouko's parents were genuinely unreachable to detain her for questioning.

After changing shoes, keeping a sharp eye on Asakura Ryouko the entire time, Akasaka gestured to nearest police officer, glancing at his nametag briefly. "Tamaru-san, I need you to accompany me to the station house."

Tamaru saluted sharply, his eyes fixed on Asakura. "Yes, sir! I have a car outside the gate."

"Hmm," Asakura mused, "what is this about, I wonder?"

Tamaru wordlessly led the way, occasionally shooting nervous glances backward at the high school girl they were escorting. Was something about this girl off to the uniformed officer as well? Akasaka didn't know, but he knew he didn't like it either way.

After putting Asakura in the back seat of the car, Akasaka sat next to her, directly behind Tamaru to keep her as far from the driver as possible. Even as the officer was starting the car, rain began to fall from the sky again. Tamaru remained wordless.

"Don't I have a right to know what I'm being taken away for?" Ryouko asked. "I was certain that's how the law worked in this country, and minors are supposed to be specially protected, too, aren't they?"

"Be that as it may," Akasaka replied, "we have the authority to bring you in for questioning at least. And you don't need to be charged with anything to be questioned as a person of interest."

"Oh, really? I'm quite typical; there's nothing remarkable about me. How could I possibly be a person of interest?"

Akasaka fought the urge to look away from her. "We can worry about that at the station. If it's all the same, until that point, I'd rather defer conversation."

"Well, if you like!" the girl replied cheerily.

XXX

Oishi's day was not going well. Halfway to the apartment complex where he knew that Nagato Yuki and Asakura Ryouko both lived, rain began to sheet down in thick, pounding waves. Emiri sat in the passenger seat to one side demurely, a soft, sad smile on her face, her features carefully composed.

Too carefully, in Oishi's mind.

Behind him, Haruhi trembled, clinging to Yuki as though the smaller girl were a life preserver, seemingly oblivious of the outside world. Nagato Yuki's eyes stared straight forward, looking out the window and blinking occasionally. Her expression was almost completely impassive. While Oishi suspected there were traces of emotion there, he didn't have time to pick them out in a rearview mirror while driving through a sheeting storm.

They got to the parking lot, and Oishi parked in another resident's spot, not caring for the trouble he was causing at the moment. Emiri had brought a pair of umbrellas with her, and gave one to Yuki, keeping the other for herself.

Oishi didn't ask to share, and endured the march to the lobby until Emiri opened the front door in the pelting rain. "I'd like to ask Suzumiya-san and Nagato-san a few questions," he said aloud. "Or maybe just Nagato-san, if Suzumiya-san isn't up for it."

Emiri glanced at the two girls, Haruhi still clutching onto Nagato beneath a shared umbrella. Oishi wasn't certain how it was established that Emiri would be the spokesperson for the two, but it seemed to be the case. The placid, calm-looking girl brushed a single damp strand of hair from her face, remarking, "I think that Suzumiya-san should be allowed to rest."

"I can answer questions," Nagato answered tonelessly. Emiri took the shorter girl's umbrella and folded it away, placing both in a communal bin in the lobby before summoning the elevator. Oishi eyed the small elevator car, then decided, "I'll be up to your apartment shortly. Go on without me; I need to radio back to headquarters."

Emiri and Nagato nodded in perfect unison, boarding the car. An apartment custodian, an aged man, peered at Oishi in consternation over a short counter. "Manager," Oishi called to him, "I need you to leave that security door open for me until I get back. I'm also going to borrow one of these umbrellas." The old man furrowed his brow, and Oishi flashed his badge in response.

After stepping outside and walking far enough away from the apartment building to collect his thoughts, Oishi lit another cigarette and called his NPA counterpart directly. "This is Akasaka," the representative answered instantly.

"Akasaka-kun, this is Oishi - sorry about the abruptness of this, but I want to request a background check."

"Oh? Alright. Who for?"

"The name is Kimidori Emiri, I'm not certain which kanji - supposedly she's a cousin of Nagato Yuki."

There was the sound of Akasaka calling something to someone else, his hand muffling the receiver for a minute before he came back. "Alright, I'll see what I can do, but before that, any particular reason?"

"Eh ... call me paranoid if you like, but I'm getting that odd signal from her, too. Speaking of which, how's Asakura-san behaving?"

Akasaka's words contrasted his tone as he growled, "Like a model citizen. I've got her alone in an interview room to sweat her, but I think we both know she's not going to be fazed in the slightest."

Oishi nodded, puffing on his cigarette before he realized the NPA agent wouldn't see the gesture. "Ah. Alright. If you want to interview her without me, go ahead - just take Aida-chan to handle the official duties. In the meantime, I'm going to try and get some more answers from Nagato Yuki. Do we have an incident report from that mess at the school?"

"An officer at the scene is taking a statement from Okabe at the moment. In the meantime, we still don't legitimately have anything on Taniguchi, unless we want to try and press for disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace. Witness statements if we want to go back to the school might get us attempted assault, but the only actual assault was Suzumiya-san attacking Asakura-san. Outside of assault charges, that's going to be stepping on Kitago disciplinary committee toes. Aside from that, his parents have to be notified before we can do anything, again. For the time being, he's in an interview room being sweated."

"Eh ... alright. We're not going to charge him, I just wanted to try and defuse the situation in 1-5 and keep things from escalating. Let his parents know... Let's go with disorderly conduct. Have someone on my staff give him a good speech about decorum, get his statement, and we'll let him go with a warning when his parents arrive. Doesn't matter what he says, unless it's genuinely incriminating ... but I don't believe it was him, at this point."

Akasaka drew a slow breath, then sighed.

Oishi's eyes narrowed. "Something else?" he asked.

"Asakura's handwriting," came the answer.

Oishi spat the remnants of his cigarette into a nearby puddle. "I see. Alright - in that case, go ahead and question Asakura. I'll probably be back shortly ... depending on Nagato-san's testimony, I might bring Suzumiya-san with me for protective custody. If we think Nagato-san is the mastermind..."

"You caught that, too?"

"Yeah. She's physically able, without a doubt. I don't know that the height will match NPA forensic or SOCO profiling, but right now we're looking at her for motive and potential. All the same, if she's smart, I want to try and keep her from thinking that we've got our sights on her until Suzumiya-san is safe."

"Roger that - I'll see you when you get back. Good luck."

"Likewise," Oishi returned, feeling uncomfortably certain he would need it. He hung up, noting with relief that the rain slackened very slightly as he marched back into the apartment complex.

XXX

After spinning around the Shinjin in perfect tandem with his colleague, slashing it into an oozing puddle of blue light, Itsuki drifted to a nearby rooftop and dropped his envelope of power. The form that lit next to him dismissed its own aura, and he was vaguely surprised to see the tall Russian again.

"Lucky break for you," the man said in his thick accent, offering something between a grin and a sneer. "My handler is small and easily swayed with promises of fewer broken bones."

Itsuki blinked, eyes widening slightly. "You beat answers out of him?" he asked, surprised at the idea.

"Tsst," the Russian hissed, shaking his head. "They thought they could control me with injections, forgetting perhaps that just because I am not in closed space, I am not without strength. I cannot go home, little boy. I hope you are happy."

"I'm not," Itsuki said, shaking his head. "Not at all."

"You play the role of a hero," the Russian continued, offering a broad-shouldered shrug. "I save the world. Just maybe, we'll get a happy ending anyway."

"You're just going to stay in closed space?"

"No, I will seek refuge with other espers. But that is not the point. The point is this: the Organization admits to capturing the time traveler. I don't know where, but I am told it is so."

Itsuki took another deep breath, nodding to himself. The two were still in closed space; another Shinjin was active in a merged space. "I'm not just trying to play the hero. Even though your information helps me, we're all in this together. We can at least try to clean this space before I go back."

"Yes, is faster with allies," the Russian agreed, before reassuming the red sphere of energy around himself and streaking away towards the next Shinjin.

Itsuki shook his head, lips pursed. No matter what happened, he and the large man would be allies in this space ... but was his word trustworthy? Even if so, all he'd done was confirm Mori's speculation, which he could easily just have been feeding back to the younger esper...

No, he told himself, shaking his head. It was too early to start doubting himself and his new cabal.

XXX

Akasaka didn't particularly want to interview the Kitago class 1-5 representative. Even though she appeared in most ways to be an average schoolgirl - too average, really, except for her almost sculpted good looks - the 'wrongness' about her that he couldn't quite articulate jarred against his nerves.

But he was trying to help Oishi with his investigation. Aside from which, the background check on Kimidori Emiri was already in motion; he had nothing to gain by idling, unless he wanted to make Oishi do this interview himself. And Oishi was going to have his hands full possibly trying to take Suzumiya into custody, protective or not.

He flagged down Oishi's chief secretary, the unassuming Aida. "Oishi-kun wants Asakura-san interrogated," he ordered. One of the detectives still at the school had scanned the page with the girl's handwriting sample, and the case file now had both samples side-by-side; a photocopy of the original note and Asakura's message to Kyon. "I'll be supervising."

"Understood," Aida replied, nodding.

The two men stepped into the room with the girl, who beamed a cheerful, sunshine-bright smile at the two men. "Hello!" she chirped.

"Hello, Asakura-san," Aida replied, after flicking on the digital recorder, setting a now very thick copy of the case-file on the table before taking a seat opposite her. Akasaka took the seat to Aida's right, adding his own small file with the rushed NPA analysis next to it. "My name is Mizuno Aida. This is National Police Agency supervisor Akasaka Mamoru. We'd like to ask you a few questions."

"Hmmm... Questions? I think the law says you need to contact my parents, doesn't it?"

"It does," Aida agreed. "However, there are specific statutes outlining our responsibility to justice and truth, especially in the case of parents or guardians of minors that cannot be contacted."

"But, don't at least forty-eight hours need to pass before parents or guardians can be considered unreachable?" Her smile hadn't faltered in the slightest.

"They already have," Akasaka commented. "Counting our original attempts to contact them the first day of the investigation. May I ask how a high school girl became so well versed in law?"

Her fixed smile lessened slightly. "Without a legal guardian or parent, I believe I am allowed a lawyer before you can question me," she pointed out.

Akasaka set his phone on the table and slid it forward. "By all means," he said, "if you have a lawyer, call them. We'll erase this record and restart the interview."

Aida sighed, rewinding the digital recording and zeroing out all of the data. Asakura reached towards the phone, her smile returning, then hesitated, cocking her head slightly to one side.

"We would like to point out," Aida explained, "that our previous interview was merely to question you in further detail about what happened a few nights ago."

"You haven't been accused of anything," Akasaka added.

"Though," Aida continued, tilting his face with artistic precision, flashing light from his spectacles like mirrors directly into Asakura's eyes, "we do find it very interesting that you feel the need for a lawyer, considering that."

The girl stared, her smile vanishing as her lips pressed into a straight, flat line. She blinked, considering something, then her eyes fixed on the closed envelope that Akasaka hadn't even brought into play. Raising her hands and steepling them together, fingertips touching like a blushing schoolgirl about to make a confession, she carefully said, "I'm sorry. I have no more interest in this."

She rose to her feet, regaining her smile, and both of the men rose warily, too.

"You're not leaving this building," Aida began, before she abruptly circled around the table and closed the distance to him, her hand driving into the detective's chest before Akasaka could even reach for his stun-gun. It came away trailing an arc of crimson, then plunged in again, and again, and for good measure, the girl ripped her hand back and forth, side-to-side, shedding another spray of arterial blood.

He didn't know if he would ever be able to explain how, but she was already kicking open the interview room door before Aida collapsed, gurgling in agony as the knife - from where? The girl had been searched! - clattered to the floor at the fallen detective's side.

"Help!" Akasaka screamed, wrenching the stun-gun from its holster and turning, but far too late. The detectives in the room beyond all stared in shocked amazement ... but there was no sign of the girl. "Officer down! Officer down!"

Growling, he stuffed the stun-gun back into place and tried to administer first aid until a medical attendant arrived. His heart and mind both racing erratically, the second he had his hands free, he snatched his phone and redialed Oishi.

XXX

When the elevator reached Nagato Yuki's floor, Oishi quirked an eyebrow to see the girl standing in front of her apartment, waiting for him. Was she able to see him, seven floors below? Watching his conversation through the rain? He doubted she'd be able to hear him through the driving storm ... or even if the sky were clear, across that distance.

But it was unnerving anyway. "Nagato-san," he greeted her.

She wordlessly turned and opened the door. Grimacing, he stepped into her apartment. The sparse, almost bare room sported only one piece of furniture worth noting. Emiri sat at the table, and three teacups had been set out. "Sit," Nagato said, taking a seat one side of the table, next to her 'cousin'.

"I'm a bit more comfortable standing at the moment," Oishi replied, glancing across the room again. "Suzumiya-san is resting?"

Emiri nodded apologetically. "Today has been very hard on her," she said, with exactly the perfect amount of sad sympathy. That was enough for Oishi; for all he knew, Suzumiya was drugged in the next room. He decided he'd play a few more questions out, and then take her in. Whatever the strange girls were up to, Suzumiya would be better off with doctors and police psychologists.

"You won't mind if I take a look at her?" Oishi asked.

Emiri looked at Nagato, who blinked again, then rose to her feet. "Follow," she said. Oishi did, uncomfortable with the idea of turning his back on the girl at the table. Nagato Yuki walked a short distance down the hall on silent feet, then slid a door open. In the room within, Oishi was able to see the form of Suzumiya, still dressed in her school uniform, sleeping on a single futon. The girl's face twitched on occasion, as though she were submerged in a deep layer of dream, and her cheeks still glistened with recent tears.

Oishi allowed a deep sigh to escape, then nodded at Nagato, who slid the door shut and walked back to the living room on equally silent feet, retaking her seat in a single fluid motion.

He followed, frowning intently as he tried to puzzle out what was going on.

"If you'd like to speak with Yuki-chan alone, I can leave," Emiri offered. "I don't mind watching over Suzumiya-san."

The detective nodded warily. "I appreciate that," he said. "If it's not too much trouble."

The girl shook her head in response and rose to her feet, walking back to the bedroom with feet as silent as Nagato's. For her part, Nagato stared straight forward, only blinking on occasion. "Nagato-san," Oishi began, once Emiri was out of earshot, "could you give me your eyewitness account of what happened today?"

Nagato blinked and turned to look at him. "Vague," she answered.

He pursed his lips together. "Specifically," he clarified, producing his notepad, "what happened with Suzumiya Haruhi in class 1-5. And please, be verbose."

The stoic girl gave a tiny nod. "At seven minutes thirty four seconds after nine in the morning, Suzumiya Haruhi entered class 1-5. She approached her desk. She observed a floral arrangement on," and then Nagato's demeanor cracked for an instant, and something like a tiny, almost invisible scowl crossed her face, before vanishing, "the desk in front of hers. The cultural significance of this confirmed a reality she had been attempting to deny for some time."

Oishi stared, taken aback.

Nagato blinked twice, then continued, "After expressing a physical reaction of shock, Suzumiya Haruhi accepted a gesture of solace from fellow student Taniguchi. She then turned and approached," another pause, though this time Nagato's expression didn't change, "myself. At this juncture, fellow student Asakura Ryouko, representative for class 1-5, attempted to provoke a reaction from Suzumiya Haruhi concerning her words from fifth month nineteenth day two thousand and ninth year current era.

"Confronted with these words, Suzumiya Haruhi reacted with anger and physical violence, striking class representative Asakura Ryouko. It was at this point that I interceded, physically removing Suzumiya Haruhi from conflict for her own safety. You arrived after that."

The detective's gaze turned to the notepad, where he'd written only the day's date. "Is that ... so?" he finally managed.

She still stared at him, unblinking. "Yes."

"Well... I see. Thank you. Ah, unfortunately, at this time, I'm going to take Suzumiya Haruhi into custody. Regardless of her motives, her behavior is unacceptable."

Nagato's gaze slowly turned away from him, and she blinked. "Wait here," she said quietly.

"If it's all the same," he began, as she rose to her feet, before she shook her head abruptly.

"It is inappropriate for you to watch her change," the girl noted. "Wait here."

Oishi pursed his lips together, wondering if they were going to do something like sneak down a fire escape ... but nodded. His argument for bringing Suzumiya into protective custody was already weak enough. He contemplated ignoring Nagato's blunt demand and checking on the girls anyway, but was distracted by the ringing of his cell phone.

"Oishi here," he answered, not checking the display.

"Oishi-kun!" Akasaka yelled across the connection. "Asakura Ryouko escaped!"

"What?" he yelped back, quickly glancing down the hallway. "How? Where is she?"

"I don't... Somehow, she had a concealed weapon - she attacked Mizuno-san - he's..." The NPA agent took a deep breath. "Oishi-kun, I don't know how to explain this; I've never seen someone move as quickly as she did. Mizuno's in a bad way, and she's out of our custody. I'm going to mobilize forces to search for her, but if she killed Student K to get to Suzumiya, she could be on her way there right now."

Oishi felt a chill run down his spine at the thought of losing his best aide. "Shi... Alright. I'm taking Suzumiya-san into protective custody," Oishi growled. "Have backup meet me at Nagato's apartment."

"Understood," Akasaka replied. "Oishi-kun ... don't hesitate. Asakura shows no remorse."

"Right," Oishi said, numbly. "I'll see you at the station."

The door at the end of the hall opened, and Nagato Yuki, still in her school uniform, and Suzumiya Haruhi, now in more casual shorts and a loose shirt, stepped from the room. The short, bespectacled girl was most likely not the culprit if Asakura had revealed herself with a weapon, despite Oishi's original thoughts on the matter. "Nagato-san," he said, stepping forward and seizing Haruhi's unresisting wrist, "Suzumiya-san is being taken into protective custody from Asakura Ryouko; you can come with me if you like."

"No," she answered softly.

Oishi stared at her, but realized he couldn't stay to argue. "Fine," he said in clipped tones, dragging Haruhi towards the doorway. She followed his lead docilely, and he grit his teeth, wishing he could understand what was going on.

Nagato watched him lead the girl to the walkway outside of the apartment, her eyes tracking him as the door swung shut. Muttering dire imprecations to himself, he glanced at Haruhi's face. Her eyes were dark, empty, her facial muscles were slack, and her walk was the stumbling gait of a drugged stupor. "Damn it," he snarled at no one in particular, switching the hand he used to lead her and putting one hand on his pistol as they approached the elevator.

He stopped suddenly, eyes narrowing as he watched the elevator's floor indicator. From fifth, up to sixth ... and stopping on the seventh. Asakura's apartment was on the fifth floor, but there was no way she could possibly...

When the door opened, revealing the class 1-5 representative in her school uniform, she cocked her head to one side and raised her eyebrows. "What a pleasant surprise! Maybe this will be more interesting?" she asked. "I'm really disappointed that you didn't react more, Suzumiya! I did this all for you, you know!"

Oishi drew his handgun and fired with a wordless snarl. It would cost him his badge, but he didn't care anymore; if the schoolgirl had killed Aida, then nothing else mattered. Impossibly, he saw the girl's hand flash, faster than his eyes could follow, and a spray of sparks danced off the blade that she had not been holding a heartbeat earlier.

"No," Haruhi whispered hoarsely, pulling away from him, trying to retreat from Asakura's approaching form. "No!"

"Damn it!" Oishi swore again, pulling the trigger again and again, until the clip was empty, each bullet somehow deflected by a stray shower of sparks. If anything, the smile on Asakura Ryouko's face widened with each deflection, until in desperation, Oishi cast the handgun away, following Haruhi's lead and breaking into a run towards the emergency fire escape at the other end of the hallway.

Abruptly, his body froze in place, as though he were encased in invisible cement. He could breathe, somehow, but couldn't even move his jaw enough to form words, and the breath he could draw was a raspy stream at best. Asakura giggled cutely as she walked past him. Before him, Haruhi had frozen too, probably bound the same way he was. She was sprawled on her back, eyes wide in terror, mouth locked open with an unvoiced shriek. Unshed tears shimmered in the light reflecting off her face.

"I'm really very disappointed," Asakura said, adding another tiny giggle to her statement. "Maybe it's because I didn't let you see it happen? Or maybe you just need to know it was me that killed him? He cried, you know! I thought he was going to be more of a man about it, but I guess I don't really understand the emotions of organic beings that well!"

Asakura suddenly stood up straight, tilting her head back and touching a single fingertip to her lower lip. "I understand that some humans have a tradition of allowing the dying last words, so I let him have that. I thought maybe he would show me something I didn't know. But it was the same boring thing you'd see from a television drama! First, he begged for his life, or for a compromise ... that was really uninteresting." She flicked one wrist, throwing the jagged combat knife directly into Oishi's gut. He heard the eerie sounds of the blade penetrating his flesh, and the slap of the small hilt arresting its momentum.

He tried to writhe in pain, but was held too securely to react; he couldn't really even quicken his breathing or cry out in alarm. "So, I stabbed him, just like that!" The girl took a step closer to Oishi and yanked the knife out. "And then I told him to do better than that! And do you know what he said?"

Asakura bent over slightly, her cheeks faintly coloring as she touched the tip of her blade to the tip of one finger, toying with it absently. "It was really disappointing. He said, 'If you really want to surprise Haruhi, tell her I don't think she's so strange at all'. Of course, he was crying the entire time... What is that supposed to mean? Was it just a product of his fear? Was it genuine, or just words? I really don't understand!"

She cocked her head to one side again, leaning close and peering into Haruhi's eyes, where tears now flowed freely. "Hmmm... This is still very uninteresting. I thought you'd do something after all this! But maybe my superiors were wrong? Maybe you're not that special at all... Or maybe you aren't scared enough? Well, in that case, if you can't stop this, then I'll at least get a new state to observe!"

Asakura stood up straight holding the knife loosely in one hand again. "Suzumiya-san," she said cheerfully, "please die!" And with that, she thrust forward, the blade plunging into Haruhi's chest. Asakura's smile widened even further, her eyes narrowing into tiny lines as she gave a single, sickening twist to the embedded blade. 


	5. Chapter four: The third afternoon

Error in Calculation

Chapter Four: The Third Afternoon

A 'Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' fanfiction.

Disclaimer: The novel 'Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu'/'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. ;)

Additionally, a character or two is borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07, but don't read too much into that.  


* * *

Ryouko's eyes opened, and she frowned suddenly. "Oh?" she asked. "How...?"

Haruhi's hands suddenly broke free of whatever force was holding them in place, latching onto Ryouko's extended wrist. "I'm sorry," Haruhi said, her voice genial, strangely apologetic. "I'm used to a much more passive role than this."

Ryouko blinked twice, then struggled to break free of the other girl's grip. If he could have moved, Oishi would have dropped his jaw, despite the bleeding wound in his gut. How was it possible for the girl to ignore the wound in her chest?

A bizarre tessellation of geometric patterns shot across the ground from beneath Haruhi, scribing strange shapes that Oishi couldn't identify as they rapidly encompassed a large portion of the hallway, rising into the air and describing a rectangular prism. His stasis broke as a hand hauled him backward, dropping him roughly in a sitting position.

He grunted in pain as Nagato Yuki turned towards him, briefly spitting out a string of compacted gibberish before the pain of his wound vanished. "Stay still," she said in her quiet monotone.

Too stunned to do anything else, Oishi could only stare as the small girl stalked forward, suddenly thrusting her hands, knife-like, into Asakura Ryouko's back. Asakura didn't seem to feel pain despite the blood that sprayed across the strange walls around them, and her smile lessened only slightly.

"I didn't think you would both become involved," she said, a trace of resignation in her voice. "I had prepared for one of you, but not an alliance. Even so, I did well trying, didn't I?"

"No," Haruhi said, shaking her head slowly, before her image wavered, distorted. The knife in her chest dissolved into flakes of white nothingness, melting like snow, and her wounds vanished. Where Haruhi had been moments before, Kimidori Emiri lay in the same position, still gripping Ryouko's wrist. "You have no understanding of negative emotions."

"I thought it would be a detriment to be subject to such things," Asakura said, her smile carrying into her voice. "But, that's okay! I acted as a catalyst! Even if it's not much, at least I caused some change!"

"We will know why you chose to terminate the observation subject's primary life form of interest," Emiri said clearly, her pale green eyes locked on Ryouko's.

"I really don't understand the organic concept of death," Ryouko said, shaking her head minutely in apology. "I just wanted to see a change; I'd gotten bored observing a static subject."

Nagato spat out another string of gibberish and removed her hands from Ryouko's body, which healed itself as Oishi stared, dumbfounded. "All of your accesses are sealed," Nagato informed the girl quietly. "With the consensus lost, you are confined to your organic being."

Kimidori Emiri produced a smoother string of gibberish, releasing Asakura's hands and adding, "All data manipulation is blocked to you, and your countermeasures and backup protocols have been disabled."

Asakura stood up straight, frowning as her hands felt her body, patting her stomach, then reaching behind herself to touch her back curiously. Emiri climbed to her feet. "I don't really understand," Ryouko said again, examining her fingertips closely, turning her hand over. She studied her fingernails with consternation. "Is this the concept of irony? I don't see how it applies to us, anyway."

"I will show you," Nagato Yuki whispered, producing a knife identical to the one Asakura had previously used.

"Nagato-san!" Oishi protested, trying to climb to his feet, but too slow - the schoolgirl plunged the knife into Asakura's abdomen - the same place that Asakura had stabbed him ... and Kyon.

Asakura allowed a shocked, amazed sound to escape her throat, eyes widening as she stared at the knife. "It's incredible!" she choked out. "I never knew... Aaah! Is this fear? Amazing! And organic life forms ... always experience this?" Somehow, Asakura found it within herself to smile again, even as she sank to her knees. "It hurts!"

"This injury is not even lethal," Emiri noted. "With medical help, your life could be saved."

Asakura turned her gaze upwards. "It's too much! How can they withstand this?" she asked, tears shining in her eyes.

Nagato trembled slightly, a tremor running from her feet upwards, until her hands shook. Her voice was harsh, a sudden departure from her almost constant monotone. "Did you enjoy making Kyon experience this?" she asked.

More tears flowed. "I never knew," Ryouko murmured again. "Ah! I wanted something interesting to happen!"

On his feet again, Oishi couldn't make himself take a step forward. There was no mysterious force binding him in place, but he couldn't believe what he was seeing ... didn't think they would tolerate his interference.

"I hope this experience is suitably unique," Nagato said softly, tearing the knife free, then slamming it home in Ryouko's stomach two more times in rapid succession.

"Nagato," Emiri said slowly, ignoring Ryouko's form as it collapsed to the ground, the girl curling around her injuries, sobbing and laughing at the same time.

Yuki raised her hands slowly, palms up beneath her face. Oishi stared, seeing crystalline tears splash down the normally impassive girl's face, landing in her cupped hands. The blood on her palms mixed with her tears, creating a bizarre mosaic. "I don't understand this," she said softly. "Am I in error?"

"You chose to be subject to emotions because that is what your faction feels is the right thing," Emiri answered, and for once, Oishi didn't feel that 'too calculated' tone in her sympathetic voice. "And you must, too. But we don't choose why and how we feel, if we choose to feel. We simply feel. That's genuine, not simple emulation. If we cannot accept both good and bad, we don't accept the experience and cannot observe it in its entirety."

"Which of us," Ryouko gurgled out, giggling and crying together, "is hurt more? Ah! This irony! This agonizing, beautiful-"

She silenced abruptly as Emiri leaned over and pressed a fingertip against her head. Then Emiri straightened and embraced Nagato, and the smaller girl leaned into Emiri the tiniest amount. "He took me to the library," she said, her soft voice quavering in minute awe and uncertainty. "I would like ... to go again."

"What..." Oishi began. "I don't... I don't understand."

Emiri shook her head softly, raising her gaze to meet the detective's. "We don't have much time," she said apologetically. "And there is much we cannot explain."

The tessellated geometric patterns surrounding them in a strange prison suddenly contracted, drawing into Ryouko's body. Nagato broke free of Emiri's embrace, and reached - somehow - into the still girl's body. But this time, there was no spray of blood, and her hands emerged clutching a sparkling, shimmering strand of something that hurt Oishi's eyes to look at directly.

"I'd like a good explanation," Oishi snarled. "That ... thing ... whatever it is, assaulted my assistant! She tried to kill Aida-chan! Hell, if I understand this at all, she did kill Kyon!"

Ryouko's body suddenly rose, visibly unmarred, though her eyes were closed, as though in sleep. Oishi couldn't help but flinch when she dashed past him almost faster than he could blink, stopping at the elevator entrance and turning around. Eyes still closed, Ryouko charged down the hallway towards Oishi at a more sedate, human pace, then crashed through one of the windows lining the hallway, tumbling into the dim, rainy day.

His jaw hung slack until he heard the sickening, moist impact. "What..."

"In the struggle," Nagato Yuki said, seeming to be in control of her emotions once more, "it is obvious that she fell through the window and landed badly."

"Indeed," Emiri agreed. "It is unfortunate. Thankfully, you were able to protect Suzumiya Haruhi."

Oishi's eyes flickered between the two girls. "This isn't over," he warned, shaking his head.

"Be reasonable," Emiri said peaceably. "We are not opposed. Our goals do not run counter to one another."

"Goals," Oishi said, latching onto that word and collecting his sidearm. He checked the spent clip, and was not surprised to see the missing bullets replaced. He doubted they would do anything to the girls anyway. Thumbing the safety on, he thrust it back into its holster. "Fine, what is it you're trying to do here?"

"Asakura Ryouko was a rogue element," Nagato answered. "The damage she has caused must be reversed."

"Y...you mean ... you can bring back the people she killed?"

"That is impossible," Nagato answered.

"For us," Emiri added. "We require Asahina Mikuru. Beyond that, our immediate goal is keeping Suzumiya Haruhi safe from harm. It is of the utmost importance that she be made as physically and emotionally comfortable as possible."

"Or what?" Oishi asked, turning his back on the girls and leaning through the broken glass window that Ryouko had crashed through. If they wanted to kill him, they could, he realized with resignation, one hand going to the now-healed stab wound that Asakura had given him. There wasn't even a remaining cut or stain on his shirt. Her form was limp below, ringed with shards of the shattered window, and the heavy rain washed the blood seeping from her body into grim crimson halo.

"We believe that within the next forty-eight hours, possibly less if Suzumiya Haruhi is made uncomfortable, that this world will be destroyed."

Oishi gazed at the street below, his eyes not really following as a half-dozen patrol cars screeched to a halt in the parking lot around Ryouko's body. "Fuck it," he decided. "Alright. I'll believe you. I think I might believe anything, now. But in order to get this by my superiors, I need Suzumiya Haruhi - or someone who can pass as her - to come in with me to give a statement."

He glanced back, unsurprised to see Emiri's features shifting back into Haruhi's as he watched. Nagato Yuki had already vanished, presumably doing ... whatever it was that they needed done to the real Haruhi.

"Additionally, I'm going to need to bring someone else from my office in on this."

"Within reason," 'Haruhi' told him, neither nodding nor shaking her head. "We are not here to perform miracles casually, and our presence must be kept secret. Please remember that we chose to reveal ourselves to you here; had we wished, you would not have discovered us."

Oishi just shook his head and sighed again as Akasaka burst into view, charging down the hallway from the fire escape, stun-gun in hand and a dozen uniformed officers behind him.

XXX

Alone in the club room, Haruhi stared across the top of the computer monitor. A board was sitting at the table - Kyon and Koizumi playing Othello, again, probably. The pieces were set out, as though it had stopped mid-game and the two had just stepped outside for a moment. Steaming teacups in each of their places reinforced the image.

A book sat on Nagato's seat, 'Paradise Lost', a bookmark sticking out from somewhere near the end. She flinched when the door suddenly opened, Nagato Yuki entering, then shutting it behind her. "How are you here?" Haruhi asked as Nagato took a seat, setting the book in her lap without opening it, her eyes fixed on Haruhi.

"Anything can happen in a dream," Nagato answered after a moment.

"Well, I was pretty sure it was a dream," Haruhi admitted, sighing, turning to stare at Kyon's empty seat. "You using so many words gives it away for sure."

"Even so, in human psychology, dreams may have significance," Nagato returned.

"What's this one about? I don't get it ... why do I dream about Kyon being gone? I want to dream about him being back!"

"Yes," the spectacled girl agreed. "He should come back."

"And why do I feel so numb?" she sighed, folding her arms on the desk in front of her, resting her head atop them. "I should be angry ... or sad. All I feel is ... empty. Like someone managed to turn my emotions off." After a moment, she added, "I guess that's not true. I still feel sad. But I thought I should feel more."

"Dreams allow you to reconcile known facts with theorized possibilities," Nagato said after a moment. "If you wished for something to change, could it not appear in the dream?"

Haruhi sat up and stared at the other girl, who merely stared back, reacting only to push up her glasses when they slipped. "Right," she decided, turning to focus her gaze on Kyon's empty seat. "Kyon-thoughts," she mumbled. "Warm, fuzzy, Kyon-thoughts."

There was a ripple in the color and texture of the dream, and from nothing, Kyon was suddenly sitting in the seat at the Othello board, looking at her with shining eyes. "Haru-chan," he said in a deep, romantic voice. "I love you!"

She sighed, shaking her head, and Kyon vanished. "But that's not true," she grumbled. "Kyon wouldn't do that. Stupid idiot only likes Mikuru."

Another image of Kyon formed, this one irate, arms crossed over his chest. "Who are you calling stupid, you insane moron?" he snarled. "You're the one fixated on impossible things! Why wouldn't I prefer a big-chested airhead?"

Haruhi giggled, feeling something crash through those strange emotional barriers, tears filling her eyes. "That's wrong, too," she choked out as the momentary hilarity fled her and Kyon vanished again.

Nagato was at her side, one tiny palm against the small of Haruhi's back. "I am here," she said.

"I guess that's what this dream is about? I can't have Kyon, but at least I have friends?"

"It is complicated," Nagato said after a thoughtful moment, her unblinking eyes fixed on Haruhi. "I am sympathetic to you."

"What, even though you never say anything, you feel the same way?" Haruhi sighed, shaking her head. "You liked Kyon, too, I guess?"

Nagato didn't respond for a long moment, then she nodded, very slightly. "Yes."

Haruhi grimaced, shaking her head again. "I don't know if I like this dream."

"I am sorry. What would you like?"

Haruhi blinked, turning a quizzical glance at Yuki. "Are you for real?"

Nagato's stoic silence returned.

"Eh ... my own imagination," Haruhi sighed. "I want Kyon back. But I don't want to see Kyon in a dream, and wake up to realize it's just a dream."

"I see."

"But you can't bring people back from the dead ... can you? You probably know the science stuff better than I do. Or, hell, I know for sure you follow sci-fi better. What does speculative fiction tell us can be done?"

Nagato answered without hesitation, "Scenario one: In contemporary human sciences, reductionism records the human mind as a series of electro-chemical impulses across the brain. These can then be broken into chemical and electrical packages, explained by chemistry, and then physics. However, it is commonly accepted that despite this, there is no sufficient technology on earth capable of rendering a functioning mind from the available data of those parts."

"Uh ... so ... the whole is more than the sum of its parts, right? Aristotle in the Metaphysics?"

Nagato nodded. "That is the general principle of holism. Therefore, a holistic wavefront would be a more accurate representation of human consciousness."

"So, we're all formulae? And if we could get the precise formula for Kyon, we could recreate him?" Haruhi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Your own consciousness would not be able to contain that data."

"Yeah, you're right," Haruhi mused, frowning. "After all, if I tried, it would merge with the holistic wavefront that represents me, right?"

Nagato nodded again.

"So, first of all, I'd have to get his formula, anyway."

"If such an observation existed, accurate to the moment when his consciousness ceased, it would be recorded as a static value," Nagato added. "The wavefront both changes via observation, and is in a constant state of flux while consciousness is active."

"Something really complex, like a Fourier transform on the standing wavefront?"

Nagato blinked several times. "Much more complex," she finally answered.

"Bleah," Haruhi grumbled, tilting her head to one side. "That's too bad. I might be able to figure out a Fourier transform or two. Ugh, what kind of messed up life do I have to dream about this as a coping mechanism?"

"Your own wavefront would be modified by proximity to those wavefronts around you," Nagato noted. "Various overlaps, collisions, amplifying elements, converging elements-"

"Right, right," Haruhi sighed. "Heisenberg and Schroedinger. The mere act of observation affects changes; until something is observed it's a series of multiple probability waves. Only when observed do they actualize into reality. Okay, so it's way too much math and science for our mortal minds to calculate. You said scenario one, though, so what's scenario two?"

"Scenario two: Time travel," Nagato answered.

"That's refreshing," Haruhi mused after a moment, sitting up straight again. "Better than the wall of metaphysics. Except that it poses a whole new and different series of physics issues, to say nothing of paradoxes. I suppose we could go back in time, to when Kyon was... A...anyway, we could swap him out for a clone, so that our comprehension of reality was unchanged." In a slightly different tone, she added, "I really liked that game. It was kind of old, but still a ton of fun. I think Kyon would have liked it, too."

Nagato continued staring, unblinking.

"But that probably won't work," Haruhi continued, shaking her head, "unless you buy into the divergent timeline theory, in which case time travel isn't really time travel, it's dimensional travel to alternate, yet similar realities. If reality supports anything other than a stable time-loop, that's what it'd have to be."

"A stable time-loop reality would also necessitate predetermination."

"I could deal with Kyon being predetermined to live."

Nagato nodded faintly. "Scenario three: A being of sufficient power to recreate reality."

"I wish," Haruhi mumbled, tears springing to her eyes. "But there isn't such a thing."

"Power does not infer capability. Assume that I had the ability to record a holistic standing wavefront, and also had obtained a recorded model of the wavefront that represents ... him. Even with that data, I could not perform reassembly and expect satisfactory reintegration with our reality."

"Okay, dream-Yuki," Haruhi said, shaking her head. "You have a magical computer brain that can fit all that stuff and you can do the formulas in your head. Can you travel through time? Can you reshape reality?"

"We are searching for a time traveler," Nagato answered. "When we acquire the ability to alter temporal reality, we will become more aware of its limitations."

"The reality reshaping is still a problem."

"Yes. Therefore, I am closely recording your own holistic standing wavefront."

"What, I can reshape reality?" Haruhi asked, snorting. "If I could, then- No, wait. You're right. Of course I can; this is a dream. Okay, so I can reshape reality. And you can learn how to do it by watching me?"

Nagato's head shook. "Two issues arise. Firstly, what I ... am is not capable of creating an imago that does not already exist within this reality. Direct control over your power would destroy the very thing ... I hope to find. Secondly, through a functional mechanic of quantum stability, this power is unique. It cannot be copied."

"So I would die if I gave it up?"

"Negative. The power is not inherently a function of your wellbeing or stability, though those things would naturally effect your power."

"Yeah, sure, logic follows. My waveform changes, the way my power works is altered." Haruhi allowed herself a single, somewhat bitter laugh. The science fiction conjecture of her dream did at least allow her to escape the grim reality she actually lived in, without being as insipid as actually dreaming of Kyon. "Okay, so I give you the power, but we still can't time travel to go back and fix things, paradox free."

"Worry only about giving me permission," Nagato replied. "Your power will be returned to you after this is accomplished."

"Super magical computer girl Nagato Yuki, here to save the day with the power of heart," Haruhi mumbled, frowning. "How does this work?"

Nagato hesitated, her mouth open as though to speak before she thought better of it. After a long minute of further, abortive gestures, she eventually said, "It is difficult to explain. I must ask you ... to bet on me."

"What the hell," Haruhi said, smiling sadly. "You got it. If I can't trust you in a dream, I'm more messed up than I thought."

"I require your trust in the waking world," Nagato added. "Even if I cannot explain these things there. I also would request your permission to erase your memories concerning this reality and the events that have happened here, should our attempt to repair it be successful."

Haruhi frowned, turning to stare at Kyon's chair. The cup of tea at his seat still steamed. "I'll believe in you," she said quietly. "I guess I couldn't really remember all of this, or else I'd really freak Kyon out by..." She swallowed, feeling her cheeks warm up. "But, anyway, if you're a magical computer girl time traveler or whatever, and you do it ... you go back in time and fix this ... I want you to promise me that you use those powers to make sure Kyon's happy, no matter what."

"I will," Nagato replied instantly. At Haruhi's questioning glance, Nagato finally broke eye contact, staring towards Kyon's empty seat. "I promise. Your permissions have been acknowledged." Then she hesitated, turning back to look at Haruhi slowly as she added, "Thank you."

"Maybe this dream isn't so bad," Haruhi said, before everything faded away to comforting darkness, as she had the vague impression of Nagato leaning towards her.

XXX

After spending a few hours eliminating some of the Shinjin with the Russian, but unable to collapse the closed space, Itsuki was relieved to see another pair of crimson orbs streaking towards the remains of the currently collapsing giant. There wasn't much point to comparing their powers directly - they were more-or-less the same powers, after all. But the Russian seemed tireless, and Itsuki's strength was waning.

Landing on a skyscraper rooftop, he watched the orbs streak in, light vanishing and revealing the pale man who spoke poor Japanese, and the Caucasian woman who was flawless at it. "Greetings," she said, nodding at Itsuki and the Russian. "May I ask for clarification on what happened this morning?"

"I haven't observed Suzumiya directly since before Kyon was killed," Itsuki answered, shaking his head. "But I believe that she knows he's dead now, where she only suspected, before."

The pale man jabbered for a minute, something Itsuki could only pick occasional words out of - meaningless pronouns - before stuttering, stumbling over one specific set of syllables: "To- Soo... TSU...ru...ya," he finally managed, glancing at the woman next to him for clarification.

She furrowed her brow, turning back to Itsuki to say, "Ah ... he says his handler let him know that the Organization - or at least, parts of it, have had a recent altercation somewhere here in Nishinomiya, with the Tsuruya family."

"This family, they have the time traveler?" the Russian asked, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"Maybe," Itsuki allowed. "Ah ... my handler also mentioned that she might stay with Tsuruya, but if she had, the Organization would not have had much trouble getting in and capturing her."

"What about when the Organization was fractured?" the woman asked. "It would presumably be much harder to rally forces for such an effort, then, if there were intense infighting and no alliances could be certain."

"Well ... how recent is this information?"

The man answered in English, "Two days ago."

"If ... someone knew what was happening, or maybe someone tried to capture her for use as a trump card to manipulate the others," Itsuki conjectured, "then maybe that's it. Whoever's got the greatest power base has it because they're holding her. That means we have to get a hold of her as quickly as possible."

"Strongly agree," the Russian said. "But it is late, and I am very tired. I will sleep, and then fight some more."

The woman shook her head. "In any case, no matter what we do, we know how upset she is. We know that there's going to be a lot more closed space. It's unfortunate, but ... I don't think we'll be able to stop it. Only delay it."

"We have to buy enough time to get to the time traveler," Itsuki said back, shaking his head. "It's the only answer I can see."

"Yes," the pale man agreed. "Good ... luck."

"Thank you," Itsuki replied, bowing to his colleagues. "I'm going to see if I can get any more information from my handler."

The others bowed back, even the Russian, after a moment.

Flying back to the apartment, he noted with wry amusement that he had carelessly barreled through the balcony door on his way in initially, leaving a twisted, shattered remnant of it behind. He flew through the gap, then landed on the floor and crossed back to real space.

Arakawa's eyes flashed to him, one hand going to the knife concealed in his jacket before he relaxed, nodding. "Welcome home," he said.

"Thanks," Itsuki replied, frowning, looking around. "Is Mori out?"

"Shopping," Arakawa replied, adjusting the dial of his radio. "Another update on Asakura Ryouko."

"Yeah?"

"After killing a detective in the interview room she was in, she decided to try killing Suzumiya-san. The lead detective on the case was bringing Suzumiya-san into protective custody, and ended up struggling with Asakura. Somehow ... in the fight, Ryouko crashed through a window and fell seven stories, dying on the scene."

"So .. she probably wasn't a TFEI?" Itsuki asked, frowning.

"We can't know that for certain."

Both of them spun as the lock turned, and the door swung open. Mori stepped in, carrying a plastic grocery bag, and quickly shut the door behind her.

She was wearing a nondescript outfit, and had her hair up in a bun, along with a pair of thick looking glasses. She smiled, some tension seeming to fade from her when she saw Itsuki, and all three relaxed together. "I'm back," she said, kicking her shoes off and removing the glasses. "I'll make something for us to eat."

"No," Arakawa said, standing and stretching his back, grimacing as it popped. "I'll take a turn. You rest."

"Thank you," Mori allowed as the older man took the grocery bag and stepped into the kitchen. "Koizumi-kun, has Arakawa updated you?"

"Yeah," Itsuki allowed, collapsing into a seat on the couch. "About Ryouko, anyway. What about Suzumiya-san?"

"She's in protective custody," Mori answered with a frown, smoothing her skirt out and sitting next to him. "The police have her."

Itsuki draped a hand across his eyes, contemplating. "Any good news?"

"The detective she killed was Mizuno Aida, an Organization plant that wasn't allied with us. For what that's worth."

"And Suzumiya-san's not surrounded by TFEIs," Itsuki mused, straightening suddenly. "Keeping Suzumiya-san safe is still a priority. Do we know that she'll be safe in police custody?"

"Perhaps, and perhaps not," Mori answered, grimacing. "We don't have the manpower or connections to try and collect her ourselves."

"Protective custody ... do we know where?"

"Well, for now she's at the station house, but at some point later this evening or tonight, she'll probably be transfered. Unless Tamaru gets assigned to watch her, he won't know where."

"Hmm," Itsuki mused, pursing his lips. "I didn't want to risk it, but... For Suzumiya-san's safety we may not have a choice. What about bringing her here?"

"But, how?" Mori asked, looking at him in consternation. "Exposing her to closed space ... think of what could go wrong!"

"Think of what already has," he sighed, rubbing his face. "Right. Do we know exactly where she is? In, um, an interview room, or a holding cell, something like that?"

Mori stared at him for a long, silent minute, her eyes boring into his. "Okay," she sighed. "I'll find out. Anything on your front?"

"Confirmation that the Organization has Asahina-san," he answered, grimacing. "And that something happened at the Tsuruya estate, but not the specifics of it, whatever it is."

"Well, I'll look into that, then," Mori said.

Arakawa returned to the room, carrying a tray loaded down with sandwiches, which he sat on the small coffee table between the three of them. "Interesting weather for summer," he remarked, looking out the window.

"I think it reflects Suzumiya-san's mood," Itsuki answered glibly. "Though, there's no rain in closed space." He took a sandwich, ate it without tasting it. "Mori-san, Arakawa-san, I'm going to take a nap. Once we know where Suzumiya-san is exactly, I'll go get her."

Mori nodded, her worried gaze following him as he trudged into the bedroom he had woken up in earlier.

XXX

After bringing an inappropriately oversized task force to the scene of Ryouko's death and returning the shaken Oishi to the station house, Akasaka had gone to his hotel, showered, changed his clothes, and returned. Even with that much time to try and calm himself, the sudden brutality of Aida's murder left him rattled. He also respected Oishi as a detective, but the man was getting on in years, and in less than perfect physical condition.

The idea of him somehow overpowering Asakura Ryouko was nothing short of laughable. So when he found himself, after Oishi had given his statement on Asakura's fall, and he had given his own statement on Asakura's attack on Aida, sharing the detective's favorite smoking balcony, he actually asked the larger man, "Any cigarettes to spare?"

Oishi began to pull a single cigarette from the pack with shaking fingers, then barked an abrupt laugh, shaking his head. "No, Akasaka-kun, now is not the time to start," he said, bringing it to his own lips instead.

The NPA agent sighed, checking behind himself to see that the door to the building was closed. A convenient overhang kept the now-endless rain off the pair. "So," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "You got into a struggle with Asakura? And she fell?"

Oishi grimaced, a shaky hand lighting his cigarette. "Akasaka-san, I don't know if I believe what really happened myself," he muttered. "I'm not really sure what... Eh. Look, did you get that background check on Kimidori Emiri?"

"Yes. She lives one floor down from Nagato Yuki, and one floor above Asakura Ryouko."

The heavyset detective raised one eyebrow, then shook his head. "Whatever," he sighed. "I shouldn't even be surprised. Family?"

"Records are impeccable," Akasaka mumbled, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "The only real problem is that her family is just as unreachable as Asakura's, Asahina-san's, or Nagato-san's."

"I don't think their families are real. I'm sure if you tracked down the people who were supposed to be their middle school teachers, their neighbors when they were younger... I think no one would remember them. I'm not sure what they even are... Well. You've figured that I didn't really overpower Asakura, right?"

"It seemed likely," Akasaka agreed, leaning against the wall, studying the detective's back.

"Witches, vampires ... demons ... I don't know, and I don't think I care anymore. They're not human. That's what didn't really fit for Asakura. When I tried taking Suzumiya-san down the hallway to the elevator, Asakura arrived first."

Akasaka rolled the words around in his mind. Vampires? In daylight? Witch didn't seem to fit either. Demon... But then, what did he know? She moved faster than a trained martial artist.

She'd gotten that knife to kill Aida somehow. Once she kicked the reinforced steel door of the interview room open, she had completely vanished. The report he wrote up of the incident already looked implausible enough as it was. "Well, she moved between the station house and her apartment faster than emergency vehicles with sirens on," he said aloud. It might not be that farfetched.

"I'm sure we'll find PCP or some other conveniently unlikely but plausible justification in her apartment," Oishi said sourly. "When Asakura came down the hall, she was babbling about how ... how boring it was killing Ky- That is, Student K. Something about Suzumiya-san not reacting well enough to interest her. The main thing was she didn't know what it was like to be human. Or something like that... She stressed 'organic' a lot. I don't know..."

"She's in autopsy. We'll have a toxicology report later," Akasaka said quietly. "If there was anything truly ... alien about her, I'm sure they would have called us by now. I don't know about ... witches or vampires. But I also don't think PCP would honestly explain things. And if she was on those kinds of drugs ... how was it that you fought her without her hurting you at all?"

Oishi dropped one hand to his stomach and bowed his head. "She stabbed me," he said quietly. "While talking about how ... unsatisfied ... she was when she killed Student K. His last words."

Akasaka stared at the detective a moment longer, then looked out through the late afternoon rain, the city shining wetly around them. "Oishi-kun..."

"Yeah ... maybe I'm just seeing things," the heavyset man sighed, flicking his cigarette off the balcony and into the rain. "But bear with me a moment longer. This isn't just me being upset about Aida-chan being killed. Suzumiya-san's been interviewed? We have her testimony about Asakura's conversation with her in class this morning?"

"Yes," Akasaka agreed, frowning. "Yamada-san conducted the interview, I believe. I know you're under a lot of stress, but this case seems to be solved. Whatever has happened, it's behind us, right? We know that she's the one responsible for killing Student K, she tried to assault yourself and Suzumiya-san, she assaulted your assistant, and ... well, she's dead now. I think you can let this go now. The NPA can manage the investigation of the other loose ends, the things that aren't really part of this case - Koizumi-san, Kimidori-san and Nagato-san's backgrounds-"

"This case isn't over until we find Asahina Mikuru," Oishi overrode him, shaking his head. "Come with me; we're going to have a little discussion with ... Suzumiya-san in my office."

Pursing his lips together, Akasaka nodded. He didn't like the idea of the detective being crushed under the pressure of the case, but still wanted to believe that Oishi had good reason for acting the way he did. And how much would it really hurt to give him the benefit of the doubt, anyway? As long as he didn't badger Suzumiya, who had suffered enough already...

XXX

She woke from the strange dream, feeling a blanket of lethargy pinning her in place on the futon. Her eyes slowly drifted open, and in the evening gloom she saw Nagato kneeling on the side of the bed, looking down at her with an unreadable expression.

Everything came crashing back at once; the comfortable emotional barrier of the dream was gone, and her eyes snapped shut again, tears welling within them. Kyon was gone. And no pseudoscience dream discussion was going to change that, no matter how much she might wish otherwise.

She sniffled, curling onto one side, and burying her face in the thick blanket on the futon. She should be grateful, she should tell Nagato that she was glad to have a friend looking out for her... But she couldn't muster the emotional strength.

Kyon was gone. "I miss him," she croaked out, when she finally managed to speak.

"Yes," Nagato agreed, one hand gently resting on Haruhi's shoulder. "Sit up."

Still sniffling, Haruhi struggled to rise, assisted by the smaller girl.

Nagato handed her a glass. "Drink."

Nodding wearily, Haruhi raised the glass to her dry lips and forced herself to swallow one mouthful after another until the glass was empty.

Nagato took it away and set it down before her tiny hands somehow pushed Haruhi back into the bed, pulling the covers up over her again. "Rest."

Haruhi wanted nothing more than to curl up and wait for the rest of the world to go away ... but something about the dream stuck with her. "Hey," she mumbled, "why are you taking care of me?"

Nagato stared, her gaze unwavering.

"Doesn't matter," Haruhi sniffled, curling up on her side again. "I'll trust you anyway."

Nagato's tiny hand brushed some stray hairs from her face. "I am glad," the stoic girl whispered.

Comforted by that gesture, at least, Haruhi let herself drift into peaceful oblivion once more.

XXX

The last few days had been full of new experiences for Koizumi Itsuki. He was still awkwardly startled whenever he woke up to find Mori sitting over him, one hand touching his face, an unreadable look in her eyes he wasn't ready to think about... But aside from that new experience, there was open rebellion. Equal partnership in the new, desperate plan with those who had joined him.

And one he was quickly coming to enjoy, using his powers for something other than simply fighting Shinjin. After slipping into closed space and flying through the shattered balcony entrance - still intact in the real world - he streaked directly to the police station, wrapped in his crackling crimson orb of power.

Tamaru's information placed Suzumiya in a detective's office, alone for the moment. The detective was busy doing paperwork, or giving a statement, Itsuki wasn't certain. He knew he had a window of opportunity, and he didn't want to waste it.

The power wrapped around him allowed him to smash effortlessly through the concrete and steel reinforced walls, then blasting through a dozen rows of desks in the police station before drifting to a halt before the door to the detective's office. The door wasn't locked, at least in closed space, but the room was empty of other people.

Not that he expected to see anything but other espers, and if they were in this room, well... He pushed that thought from his mind and glanced around. A single desk, facing the door, a comfortable looking, imposing chair behind it. Smaller, but still comfortable looking chairs facing it, a small table in the middle, covered with scattered paperwork.

"No more time," he told himself. How long could he expect his window to last, anyway? He stepped back into the waking world, watching color and form ripple through the monochrome monotony, and catching part of a conversation.

"...unbelieva- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"

He swore under his breath - there was a large man in a black shirt with a red tie sitting behind the desk, and a thinner man in a blue shirt standing at his side, both staring at Itsuki in amazement. Sitting in one of the chairs by the door was Suzumiya.

He wasted no time, leaping to her side and grabbing her wrist. "Come with me," he cried urgently, hauling her to her feet and back through the closed space barrier. He wished he'd had time to warn her to close her eyes; the crossing was traumatic to the senses of normal humans if they weren't used to it, and trauma was the one thing that Suzumiya needed the least.

"I'm sorry," he said, bowing his head. "I don't have much-"

Her hand gripped his tightly, and he felt something constrict about him, freezing him in place. He stared, able to breathe, and blink, and allowed the freedom to move his mouth. He was so stupid, he berated himself. He could sense Haruhi's emotional turmoil, even though it felt sporadic, somehow ... suppressed. But he felt nothing from the girl who somehow held him immobile.

"You're not Suzumiya-san," he finally said aloud. 


	6. Chapter five: The last morning

Error in Calculation

Chapter Five: The Last Morning

A 'Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' fanfiction.

Disclaimer: The novel 'Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu'/'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. ;)

Additionally, a character or two is borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07, but don't read too much into that.  


* * *

Her world was supposed to be full of smiles and joy. She was an heir to a vast family, with responsibilities to weigh on her at some far future day. But that was supposed to be years away; as long as she kept her reputation reasonably clean, she should have had all the time she needed to have fun!

She was most certainly not having fun.

Things started going wrong the day that her friend, Asahina Mikuru came over in tears, sobbing endlessly about classified information and death.

Still, how could you spread joy and cheer if you just ignored everyone who was unhappy, especially when they were supposed to be your friends? She'd tried her best to cheer Mikuru up, even though she had no idea who this 'Kyon' person she was so broken up about was. A boyfriend Mikuru had just never mentioned? A classmate that Tsuruya just hadn't met?

There was no real time to puzzle it out, unfortunately, before perimeter security alarms and her household staff had begun to panic. Despite the ... connections ... that her family had and the training of her security staff, they weren't properly armed.

Not for what had happened, anyway.

In a matter of moments, she and Mikuru were the last ones left. The phone lines had been cut, and by the time she had thought of her cell phone, it was too late.

That was when things had started getting worse.

She knew her family had enemies, but she had no idea that Mikuru did, too. Certainly not enemies that would do what these men and women had.

So, when push came to shove - which it had - she'd fought tooth and nail. Then a sizzling, blinding charge from a stun-gun had dropped her, and when she tried to keep on fighting after that, another had sent her spiraling into darkness. When she woke up, she was bound not far from Mikuru. The empty syringe next to her friend could have meant anything, but she was confident it was nothing good.

Twice a day, the door would open, a grim-faced man would walk into her own room with a tray, ignoring her struggles and curses, inject the still-sleeping Mikuru with ... something ... then point a pistol at her and tell her that it was her job to take care of her friend. She had no desire to make that man smile and laugh, but she wouldn't turn her back on her friend. With tiny motions, her wrists bound together, she would carefully wipe Mikuru's face with a moist towel, then struggle to spoon some broth into her mouth, which would mean she needed to wipe her face again...

Once a day, the man would return with a woman, who would lead her in tiny, shuffling steps to the washroom, then lead her back, neither of them caring if she tripped except to haul her to her feet again.

After that, she was left alone. Struggling chafed her wrists and ankles until they bled, and she'd tried gnawing at the cords binding her wrists, but they were rough and tore at her lips and gums.

So she waited as patiently as she could. She wasn't certain how, but she was confident that someday, hopefully soon, she'd be able to smile and laugh again.

And until that day, she took care of her friend to the best of her ability.

XXX

"I'm sorry," the girl who looked like Haruhi said, giving him a somewhat puzzled, friendly smile before turning to examine the world around them. "Interesting. A dimensional fault. We had suspected the existence of such places, but typically consider them to be little more than junk data."

Koizumi desperately tried to embrace his power, but all that happened in response was a slight tightening of the grip on his hand.

"I see," she added, nodding slightly. "You possess a function that allows you to shift between quantum states to this bubble of non-concurrent reality. And in this space, you also possess functions to manipulate your attribute data." Her expression turned a bit sad, more serious. "Please calm yourself. Accelerated heart rate, perspiration, and labored breathing as well as increased adrenaline levels are noted. I do not wish you any harm."

"Is that so?" he managed, blinking. "Then why are you holding me in place? Why don't you show me your true self?"

"Very well," she said agreeably, and he felt her hand shift in his, changing proportion slightly, fingers becoming longer, her height increasing as her hair lengthened, changed color and style. A heartbeat later, a kindly looking face with pale-green eyes gazed into his. "This is not really my true self, but this is my default organic form. Does this reassure you?"

"TFEI," he said in surprise. "You're... You're with Nagato-san?"

"That is correct," she said, nodding. "Though it cannot be assumed we are all aligned, Nagato-san and I have formed a partnership to try and amend the damage caused by Asakura Ryouko."

"Will you let me go?"

"Momentarily," she allowed. "I do not wish to be abandoned here. Except for relying on direct access to my superiors, I do not have the capabilities to cross this dimensional fault on my own. I apologize again, but I am going to take a sample of your makeup now, should such a crossing be required later."

Itsuki's eyes widened in amazement as his hand was freed from whatever force held it in place, though all of his strength couldn't budge it from the girl's grip for a heartbeat. She slowly, tenderly raised his wrist to her face ... and bit him. Her canines pierced his flesh, but curiously, it didn't even sting. Her soft lips wrapped around the wounded area, and he felt a disconcerting tingle.

Brushing the hair from her face, she pulled away, fingertips tracing across the puncture wounds, brushing them away to nothing. As suddenly as it had come about, the force locking him in place vanished, leaving him to wobble unsteadily as he recovered his balance. He snatched his wrist away from her and studied it closely, but didn't find any traces of the wound, only the faintest smudges of lipstick. His face colored as he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped them away fiercely.

She blinked at him innocently, raising a fingertip to her lips. "I'm sorry ... was that your first?"

"No!" he snapped, before shaking his head. "Well... No, that doesn't- We're getting a bit off-subject."

She nodded. "That is true. What was your plan in abducting Suzumiya Haruhi?"

"Abducting?" he asked, trying to keep the indignation from his voice. "I was rescuing her! That is..."

"Ah," the girl said, frowning.

"What's your name, anyway?"

"Kimidori Emiri," she answered, bowing.

"Koizumi Itsuki," he introduced himself, irritated that he could still feel the heat in his face. "A...anyway, I was trying to rescue Suzumiya-san."

"Suzumiya Haruhi is safe," Emiri replied. "We are protecting her."

"Well... I feel a bit silly, then," Itsuki sighed, giving a weak shrug.

"It was intended that I be mistaken for Suzumiya Haruhi," Emiri reassured him. "However, you have a vested interest in her. May I ask your long-term goals?"

"I don't want to fight you," he said, shaking his head.

"I'm pleased to hear that; I don't enjoy confrontational roles."

"That's reassuring. Anyway, I want to try and find ... someone who can take me back in time, to keep Kyon from being killed," he finally said. "That is my ultimate goal."

The girl's smile brightened, and Itsuki was uncomfortably reminded of the smile he practiced himself every day in the mirror before going to school. "That is very fortuitous! This happens to be our goal as well." She held out one hand, palm up. "May we return to the other side of the dimensional fault? The detectives in this room in the baseline physical existence are my allies. They do not understand the significance of Asahina Mikuru explicitly, but they are aware that she is important to us and this mission."

"I never said her name," Itsuki said warily.

"You did not have to," Emiri replied, her form wavering as she shifted to look like Haruhi once more. Her voice had changed by the time she added, "Aren't our goals the same?"

Itsuki closed his eyes. Thought about the desperation of his mission. Considered how little progress he'd made, as hard as he tried so far. "Well, as it is said, 'any port in a storm'," he agreed reluctantly, taking her hand and stepping back across the closed space barrier despite his misgivings.

XXX

Akasaka stared dumbly at the empty space where Koizumi Itsuki had appeared before he seized Haruhi - who Oishi had claimed was actually Kimidori Emiri - and then shifted through the spectrum of colors over the span of a heartbeat, and vanished once more.

Falling heavily into an empty seat, he turned his troubled eyes to Oishi, who had stood quickly, but not quickly enough to do anything. Grumbling, the heavyset man turned on the overhead fan and opened his office window. Rain from the continual storm splashed across the windowsill and onto the floor, but the detective ignored it, lighting a cigarette and taking a long pull.

"It's like that," he said dourly, blowing out a stream of smoke. "And I won't call you paranoid. I believe that Koizumi Itsuki is part of ... something now. I just don't know what."

Akasaka barked a laugh, then shook his head, closing his eyes and taking a long minute to collect his thoughts. "This is insane," he groaned. "Okay. I'll believe you, Oishi-kun. Asakura Ryouko was ... something else ... and she was ... killed by Nagato Yuki and Kimidori Emiri. What ... exactly is it they want from us?"

The same distortion of color and space appeared, Koizumi reappearing only a step from where he had vanished, Haruhi - Emiri, Akasaka corrected himself - holding his hand. This time, he was already lunging at the boy, stun-gun buzzing with an electrical charge before the special effects had faded.

Emiri's hand reached out and intercepted the weapon before it reached Koizumi. "Please do not do that," she said mildly as the crackle of discharge sounded and a scent of ozone filled the air.

Akasaka felt his left eyebrow twitch in frustration, but dropped the stun-gun to the floor.

"Allies?" Koizumi asked, giving the girl a doubtful look.

"Our manner of vanishing and reappearing is jarring to an informed worldview," Emiri said, ducking her head. "Apologies."

"I'll say," Koizumi murmured, crossing his arms over his chest and giving the NPA agent a mild smirk. "So Kimidori-san says we're working together?"

"Are we?" Oishi drawled, not moving from the window. "It hardly seems like we can do much compared to everything we've seen you do."

"You've seen," Akasaka clarified. "Koizumi Itsuki is still suspected of being part of a large illegal financial scheme, aside from which, he fled the country. Or used a look-alike with his own passport."

"You've learned about the Organization?" the boy asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's somewhat complicated."

The detective blew a stream of smoke out. "Are you willing to talk about it?" he asked. "If we're involved, as police, we need something solid to go on. It's not like we can simply break into whatever house we want to for you ... aside from which, couldn't you just do it yourself?"

"We may possess that ability, but it is both unsubtle and lacking in direction," Emiri explained. "We do not know where Asahina Mikuru is."

"Neither do we," Akasaka said sourly. "Forensic examination of her apartment didn't give us anything useful, and her parents may as well not exist."

"I can tell you some about the Organization, but I was kept in the dark on a lot of things," Koizumi said, shaking his head. "Right now, they're fractured and going through a power struggle. My handler and I split from them, and I'm trying to rally the others ... like myself to unify for our purpose regardless of what the Organization is attempting."

"What do you know, then?"

"We believe another faction of the Organization has captured Asahina Mikuru. Her last known whereabouts involve the Tsuruya family."

"Tsuruya," Oishi murmured. "Alright, let's see ... I should have Tsuruya-san's interview here." He tossed his cigarette out the window and moved to his desk, tapping a few keys on the keyboard of his computer. "Right. She didn't show up at Kitago for Student K's memorial, but my assistant interviewed her a few days ago concerning the investigation. She had nothing to offer about Student K ... at least, according to Aida-chan."

Koizumi looked thoughtful, turning to look at the detective. Akasaka fell into his chair again, crossing his arms over his chest. "Would that be Mizuno Aida?" the boy asked cautiously.

Oishi looked up sharply. "You know him?"

"I know of him," the boy said slowly. "He worked for another faction of the Organization."

Oishi's face contorted before he closed his eyes and took a deep, shaky breath. "I shouldn't be surprised," he muttered, rubbing his forehead. He tapped a few more keys on his keyboard, brow furrowed as he focused. "Well," he finally said with a sigh, "he submitted a report for the interview with Tsuruya-san, but it looks legitimate from here."

"Though ... if there's a shadowy 'Organization'," Akasaka mused, "we could easily come up with a reason to investigate."

The detective raised an eyebrow doubtfully. "Such as?"

"Koizumi-kun here just needs to be seen entering the estate," Akasaka explained. "He's already wanted for questioning. We can release Suzumiya- Ah, sorry, Kimidori-san, here, and he can 'abduct' her, drag her into the Tsuruya Estate, and then ... vanish. At this point, I'll mobilize the Special Assault Team - we can probably consider this on level with terrorism, given the passport violations, abduction of Suzumiya Haruhi, and everything else in this case that's gone wrong."

The boy's smile slipped. "I suppose that might work," he said, somewhat doubtfully. "I'm to be a terrorist now?"

"Why not?" Akasaka asked, shrugging his shoulders. "This world's crazy enough. You're confident that the Organization is at the Tsuruya Estate?"

"I'm confident they have been," Koizumi corrected. "They could be gone now, for all I know."

"It's still probably the best lead we have," Oishi murmured, furrowing his brow.

"The path is somewhat convoluted, but if that is where Asahina Mikuru is, or leads to the revelation of her physical location, then I will agree," Emiri said after a pause. "However, Nagato-san and I will switch places, so it would be convenient for our fiction if I could be returned to her apartment first." She turned to Koizumi, adding, "You will not be able to cross the dimensional fault directly into Nagato-san's apartment, but if you wish to verify that we are protecting Suzumiya-san, you may go there and see her."

Koizumi raised his eyebrows, then nodded. "I'd like that. Where is her apartment?"

Oishi snorted, shaking his head, and scribbled the directions down on a notepad. "Here," he said. "Instructions from the train station. I can't believe we're actually doing this..."

Koizumi accepted the paper, studying it briefly before pocketing it. "Kimidori-san, why are you planning on switching places, anyway?"

"Nagato-san is more suited to emergency combat situations," Emiri answered. "Her functions are slightly more active than mine, even though we are both assigned as observers."

"You aren't all the same thing?" Akasaka asked, frowning.

"It's probably not worth explaining," the boy said with a shrug. "But, consider me an esper. I can move to sealed realities that we call 'closed space', and fight manifestations of ... well, I fight to save the world. As I said, it's somewhat complicated. The Organization calls Kimidori a 'TFEI', but I don't actually know what that means."

Emiri's eyes fixed on Koizumi in warning, but he either didn't catch it, or pretended not to notice. "Let's leave it at that," she said gently. "What we are is not relevant here."

"Fair enough," the boy allowed, nodding. "Anything else? Otherwise, I'll be at Nagato-san's apartment, and then we'll perform our little abduction play."

"It would be convenient if you could perform the abduction while we were in the parking lot," Oishi remarked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "But in order to keep this all consistent for the agencies we report to, we have to have a plausible explanation for you outrunning us with a hostage on foot while we have a patrol car. And I don't feel like giving you any weapons to say you threatened us or a taxi driver with them, even if it would make it easier for Akasaka to justify the SAT."

Koizumi pursed his lips, then nodded. "Okay," he said. "I should be able to arrange for a driver. However, I want your word that if you capture my handler, you'll go easy on," a momentary pause, which both Oishi and Akasaka had been trained to catch, "him."

"Fine," Oishi allowed, nodding, trading a knowing glance with his NPA counterpart. "As long as we don't see your handler actually harming or trying to harm anyone, we'll go as easy on them as we can."

"You're going to want to be very careful of the Special Assault Team," Akasaka added. "They're well trained, and even if I tell them you're an undercover agent - which they'd never believe with your age - they'd still try and capture you the same as anyone else. That's just procedure. So if you plan on doing anything at the site, make sure it doesn't look threatening to any hostages from the other side of a scoped rifle."

The boy's smile totally vanished and he looked ill, shaking his head unhappily. "We need Asahina Mikuru," he grumbled, frowning.

"She's a person of interest in this case," Oishi said, shrugging. "I doubt we could stop you, but all the same..."

"If absolutely required, I will substitute myself for Asahina Mikuru and submit to questioning," Emiri interrupted. "However, Nagato-san and myself are encountering ... limited resources to work with in preparation for more advanced plans. It would be preferable if this was not required. Ideally, we will bring her into our own protective custody."

"How long until the world's destroyed?" the detective asked, leaning back in his creaking leather chair.

Emiri looked slightly to one side, then back. "Destabilization is expanding rapidly; less than thirty-six hours remain. Basic functionality of most lifeforms on this planet may be compromised before then."

Koizumi shuddered. "What if we were to remove all the Shinjin?" he asked.

"Shinjin? I don't... Ah, I understand. It is not your closed spaces or a failure on your part that will destroy the world, it is Suzumiya Haruhi's emotional state as she refuses to be satisfied with this world. Within the next twenty-four hours or fewer, your own abilities will undergo quantum breakdown and cease working as she embraces the new reality over the current one. We cannot know what new world she will attempt to create yet, but the slow realization she is enduring ensures that this world will be destroyed by her in the process, not simply abandoned."

"I was happier not hearing that," Akasaka said, rubbing at his temples. "Please tell me that we're not mobilizing the Special Assault Team illegally because of a teenage girl's inability to cope."

"I'm sorry." The being that looked like Haruhi bowed apologetically to Akasaka. "In that case, I retract my statement. Pretend I said nothing."

Itsuki's expression betrayed a hint of dark amusement. "It's more complicated than that," he said quietly.

Oishi snorted, shaking his head.

"Okay," Akasaka said, glancing between the boy and girl standing in the middle of the room, "one other thing. We don't have any confirmation that Asahina-san is actually in the Tsuruya Estate, unless I'm mistaken."

The boy looked away, but nodded. "That's right. I just have suspicions," he admitted.

"That's not too bad," Oishi countered. "As long as we find something suitably illegal. If there are 'Organization' people there and we capture them, then we can try and find out where Asahina-san is through them."

"I suppose that's true," Akasaka allowed, shaking his head. "But I still don't really like this. Fine; we're done plotting our conspiracy, here?"

"Yes," Itsuki allowed, frowning slightly. "I guess ... you'll see me later." With that, he stepped into that shifting curtain of draining color, and was gone.

"Let's get you home, Kimidori-san," Akasaka grumbled. "Oishi-kun, can you drive? I need to make some phone calls."

"Yeah," the detective agreed, closing the window. "Let's get this over with."

'Haruhi' lowered her head slightly, her expression mimicking the depression of the actual girl ... wherever she was.

XXX

Back in closed space, Itsuki streaked across the sky towards the train station listed on Oishi's scrawled note, swiftly following the directions the detective had written out. He was about to land and enter real space to walk into the apartment building before he spotted a conspicuous broken window leading to an inner hallway on the seventh floor. He hovered nearby for a moment, frowning, then flew through the police tape covering it and crossed back into real space. Oddly enough, space felt strangely thick around the apartment, and pushing through it took more effort than he was used to.

When he finished, he glanced down the hallway to see Nagato staring at him, standing in an open apartment doorway.

"Enter," she instructed.

Shaking his head, he did as he was told. "It's good to see a familiar face," he told her, wondering if she cared.

She studied him for a moment, then closed the door behind him and sat at the table. "Suzumiya Haruhi is resting," she answered in her eternally soft, quiet voice.

"Are you keeping her unconscious?" he asked, frowning.

Nagato's head nodded slightly. "Her brain chemistry has been augmented to lessen the impact of the negative emotions she is experiencing," she explained. "Actually altering her thought pattern and process is not advisable. She also experiences frequent surges of inhibitors to encourage sleep. The less time she is aware, the longer it will take her to completely destroy our reality."

Itsuki wanted to yell at the TFEI before him, scream that it was unjust, that it was wrong... Anything but admit that, all things considered, the plan was sensible and infinitely more merciful than trying to kill Suzumiya to stop her deconstruction of the world.

"She's comfortable?" he asked.

Nagato blinked. "Physically. Emotionally, she is in distress, even with dampened chemical responses to the mental cues for depression and anxiety. Her consciousness is being subverted into a dream-state where soothing images can be constructed by her mind, but she is aware that it is a dream and does not fully embrace those images."

"Better than what I could do," Itsuki finally admitted. Dragging her into closed space to drop her in an apartment with Mori and Arakawa to ... what ... wait out the end of the world? He shook his head. "Can I talk to her?"

The girl in front of him lowered her gaze to the table, then finally said, "Yes. It will take three minutes for her to awaken, and the window should be brief."

"That's fine," he agreed, searching his pockets for the phone that Mori had confiscated when everything first went to hell. "I have to make a call. Can I use your phone?"

"Yes."

"Also, before I forget, I assume that Kimidori-san has updated you on the plan?"

Nodding once, the TFEI rose from her place at the table and slowly walked down the hall.

After calling Arakawa and updating the man briefly on the situation, he checked the clock and decided that close enough to three minutes had passed. He marched down the hall to the door he had seen Nagato vanish through, and saw Suzumiya Haruhi curled beneath a blanket, her eyes shadowed.

Itsuki rubbed his eyes with the back of his shirt sleeve, unable to keep tears from welling up. He'd spent almost every moment he was awake since Kyon's murder fighting desperately, or thinking as hard as he could about everything and anything else. But what he'd told the other espers was the truth, even if he hadn't gotten to know Kyon as well as he liked; Kyon had been his friend. It was just so much easier to be doing things to try and fix the situation rather than think about it. How must Haruhi, who believed she could do nothing, feel?

He wasn't sure what made him feel worse. Time to think of Kyon being dead, sympathy for Haruhi's feelings, or just the echo in the back of his own skull reflecting her emotional state directly into him.

"Wake," Nagato whispered, prompting Haruhi's eyes to flutter open. The smaller girl helped Haruhi sit upright, then gave her a glass of water. Haruhi drank it, blinking away some of her fatigue to peer at Itsuki.

"Koizumi?" she asked with a tired sniffle. "You're back?"

"Yes," he said, unable to force a smile. "I just wanted to see how you were doing, Suzumiya-san."

Her eyes lingered on him for a moment before turning to the empty glass in her hands. Nagato took it from her and returned to a kneeling position, patiently waiting, her eyes on Haruhi. "Lousy," she finally said, rubbing her eyes and turning her face away. "Gonna go back to sleep now."

She curled back up, mumbling a belated, "Thanks for checking," before she stilled and her breathing slowed.

Itsuki turned around and took a few steps down the hallway, raising one arm and pressing the back of his wrist into his eyes. He doubted Nagato cared, and Haruhi should be asleep, but he had been struggling to ignore the hurt too long, and it suddenly burst out of his control. Even when he heard the door shut behind him, he couldn't stop. He hated the idea of the TFEI's cold eyes studying him without emotion, but the choked sobs escaped anyway.

He started when he felt Nagato's tiny hand on the small of his back, patting him gently. Sniffling one last time, he dragged his sleeve across his face again. "Sorry," he mumbled.

Nagato took a long moment to reply, finally saying, "I have learned that we do not choose what we feel. We simply feel. To do less is to refuse to participate in the reality we exist in."

Itsuki blinked away the last moisture in his eyes and turned to stare at the girl. Her own head was slightly bowed. "You have feelings?" he blurted out, before he realized what an asinine question it was.

Nagato's gaze seemed unperturbed. "It is not necessary to display emotions to feel them," she said. "I do not wish to discuss my emotional state." Some expression flickered incredibly briefly around her eyes before she added, "This is not intended to be rude."

He shook his head, heaving a shuddering sigh. "I appreciate that," he replied. "May I use your washroom?"

She pointed to another door without a word, and he went to it, splashing his eyes before giving in and thoroughly washing his face. Once he'd taken a few minutes to compose himself, he realized that he actually preferred Nagato's cold honesty and concealed emotions to Emiri's false seeming displays. He shook his head again. It wasn't that different from his own dissembling mask...

"Get a grip, Itsuki," he grumbled, staring at his reflection in the mirror. Other than some redness around his eyes, he looked much the same as always ... if a little more wan and less amused than he'd prefer. "Find Asahina-san, go back in time, save the day. Then it won't matter anymore."

He nodded to his reflection. "Right. Now, go to it."

XXX

Various subroutines embedded in the interdiction fields and countermeasures corresponding to the physical space around the apartment Nagato Yuki had been assigned continued monitoring the observation subject's state. The exponential decline of reality as it slid to certain destruction was certain to occur before the Integrated Data Entity reached consensus again.

Kimidori Emiri and Nagato Yuki had both compared proposals to the entire entity at large, outlining the current state and potential courses of action, but neither could calculate with any certainty that it would restore the consensus faster. The only certain way to influence the consensus at this point was to bring the technology of time travel into the integration.

Even then, such a massive recompilation of the entity, especially with the potential to reach back into time, was likely to have far-reaching consequences.

While her sensors reported that Koizumi Itsuki was washing his face, she gave focus to the data-structure of the primary. After disconnecting her accesses and severing the link with the lost consensus, and then the link to her organic body, the primary was recorded as a holistic wavefront, the same way an organic being might be, but inherently more complex due to the enfolding of all subordinate data within an interface. Somewhere in that data was his wavefront, logged in the observations of the primary as she overstepped her bounds and took independent action.

Presumably independent action, though logic suggested that no firm proof that the instructions were sent from the primary's faction would ever be discovered. As Suzumiya Haruhi's physical requirements had been met for the moment, and the observation subject had devised her own distractions in her dream-state, Nagato Yuki took a teacup from her kitchen and then sat at her table, setting it before her and modifying its attribute data.

She was aware of Koizumi Itsuki returning to the room and watching her, but ignored him for the moment; the next step of the mission as relayed by Kimidori Emiri would require her physical presence anyway. First, she changed the ductile values of the material, causing the crystalline structure to become elastic. A further attribute change modified the physical shape to be omni-dimensional, though constrained to a sphere in the physically observable dimensions. After that, she assigned the entire shape a very high tensile strength, cleared all data regarding its contents, and replaced its function with a sandboxed containment utility. Further modification made the inner surface data-impermeable, and the outer surface data-transparent.

Once done, she placed her fingertips on the sphere and moved the primary's waveform into the empty space. Visually, she observed that the structure was a four-dimensional symmetrical rotating lattice, not remarkably unlike the atomic alignment of the crystals that the altered teacup was actually composed of, except for the exponentially more complex fractal curve.

"Ugh," Koizumi grunted, rubbing at his eyes. "What the hell is that?"

Nagato Yuki turned her attention to Koizumi, blinking. "This is a visual representation of the wavefront of Asakura Ryouko," she explained. "It may be too complex for your mind to comprehend in this space."

"There's not much of a 'may' about that, Nagato-san. Can you cover it with a napkin, or something?"

Wordlessly, she did as he suggested. He opened his eyes slowly, shivering. "That is very disturbing. I'm not sure what bothers me more ... that you're keeping Kyon's killer in a jar, or that I can feel it trying to slide through the walls of this reality."

"She is contained."

"You're sure she can't get out?"

"The probability of her escape is very low, barring direct exposure to immense physical trauma. You are merely sensing the nature of a higher-order dimensional object attempting to realign itself outside of the constraints of this dimension."

"How much physical trauma are we talking about?"

"On the multidimensional axis, several hundred million terajoules."

Koizumi's expression shifted momentarily to bewilderment; irritation; contemplation; subtle pride: "The force of ... several atomic bombs?"

'Several' seemed to be an adequate subset of the actual number, but payloads could be variable. She tried to clarify: "More than twice what she could bring to bear."

His expression shifted again; shock; disbelief; fear.

"She is inactive. She can exert no motive force or data manipulation currently."

"Why not just finish her off? She killed Kyon, after all!"

Her social monitor was unsure of how to proceed, so she ignored it, conferring with her emotive process instead. "I am tempted," she said. "But it would not be constructive. Her waveform will most likely provide a reference to the specific spacial and temporal coordinates that we will intercede at to repair this reality."

"Wow," he answered after a moment, his expression and bearing showing mild awe and trepidation. "Okay. Maybe just give her a good shake?"

She spent a half-dozen cycles processing that before replying, "I forcibly updated her emotive libraries to include negative emotions. Before extracting her waveform, I caused her to endure the sensation of lethal physical trauma and the inevitability of organic death."

He displayed what her libraries noted was remarkable control over himself. Only the widening of his pupils and slight acceleration of his heart rate betrayed his concern. "Impressive," he finally said.

Proximity alarms alerted her, so she strode to the doorway; Kimidori Emiri had not seen fit to waste the dwindling PPC bandwidth. Despite his previous mastery of his outward emotive displays, Koizumi Itsuki flinched when he saw her. Nagato Yuki opened a private channel once Kimidori Emiri was within the apartment.

Emiri and Nagato exchanged wrists, injecting new streams of nanites to restore the PPC pool. Shared simultaneously across the private channel, the two exchanged physical appearance data. After releasing the physical exchange, Kimidori nodded at Koizumi wordlessly and went to the table to remove the napkin covering the primary's containment unit.

"Anyway," the dimensional fault traversing quantum shifter mumbled. "So ... I'm supposed to abduct you now?"

"Yes," Nagato agreed, testing the voice modulation to ensure that Suzumiya Haruhi's tones were emulated correctly.

"If you don't mind me asking ... why is Kimidori-san ... um ... Nagato-san, now?"

"Suzumiya-san has become more comfortable with Nagato-san," Kimidori answered, not looking back. "My persona's lack of obvious flaws makes it difficult for her to empathize with me, so this is more suitable for her emotional wellbeing."

Koizumi shook his head, then pointed at Nagato. "You forgot to give Kimidori-san your glasses."

Nagato blinked, one hand rising to her face to confirm what her other senses and sensors reported. Kimidori looked over her shoulder as well. Each ran an internal diagnostic, and then a diagnostic on the other, but no cause could be found for overlooking the detail. She removed the glasses from her face and handed them to Kimidori.

Kimidori donned them, each sending confusion across the private connection before Nagato broke it with some reluctance. She turned to face Koizumi. "Are other details missing?" she asked.

"You should pass for Haruhi. Oh, I should ... probably hold your wrist if I'm abducting you."

She nodded, holding an arm out.

Swallowing nervously, he took her wrist, then marched to the door. "Here goes nothing," he grumbled, glancing back at her as they left the apartment. He spent a moment outside the door searching for something on the ground in the rain before relaxing, some of the tension draining away. Her own glance revealed nothing more than a handful of vehicles, two with lights on.

When they were in the elevator, he released her arm and rubbed his hands together nervously. He quickly took it again when the door opened, and led her into the lobby. The custodian's seat was empty and the area was dark, except for the lighting track leading between the elevator door and the front entrance.

Koizumi Itsuki dithered for a moment, body language indicating hesitation, then finally decided to take an umbrella from the stand before going out. The constant downpour was cut by a pair of headlights from a waiting taxi-cab, and behind that, a patrol car. "Here goes my first act of terrorism," he said aloud, resignation clear in his voice. "Well, my first real one. Shouldn't you be putting up some sort of token struggle?"

Physically struggling would delay the plan, as she would be easily able to physically overpower Koizumi Itsuki, even if she restrained herself to the observation target's strength levels. Vocal resistance was judged as most likely to aid the plan. "Help," she said tonelessly. "I am being abducted."

He gave her a look her local library couldn't index properly, then gave a small smile. "Never mind," he said, opening the taxi door. "Wave at the patrol car."

She did so until he gently nudged her into the backseat. Shortly, the two were seated behind an unfamiliar adult male. Nagato added his characteristics to her database and waited for an introduction.

The car quickly took to motion, the driver asking, "Do we even know what we're doing anymore?"

XXX

Itsuki tried not to stare at Nagato. While she looked physically identical to Haruhi at the moment, she still behaved like herself ... except that if he didn't know any better, he would say she was developing a sense of humor. It was difficult to contrast that with what she had said she had done to Asakura Ryouko, however.

Then again, if Asakura Ryouko had been a Shinjin, he'd probably have used his powers to destroy her in an instant, and damn the consequences.

"How are we supposed to get into the compound, anyway?" Arakawa asked, glancing in his rearview mirror at the flashing lights.

"Uh..." Itsuki frowned. "Nagato-san, buckle your seatbelt," he told her, fighting the urge to call her 'Suzumiya-san' instead.

She stopped waving to the police car and complied, turning to look at him expectantly.

"Arakawa-san, how strong do you think the front gate is?"

"Right," Arakawa said, squaring his shoulders. "The Organization inside isn't going to be happy to see us."

"No problem," Itsuki said confidently. "We won't even need to get out of the car; I'll take us straight into closed space."

As they rounded the corner to the Tsuruya Estate, he felt a moment of panic; how could he just assume that closed space would cover the property? But his fears were unfounded - all of Nishinomiya was probably covered by closed spaces, and the Tsuruya Estate was no different. There was a bigger problem, though...

He didn't have enough time to warn anyone, Arakawa trusting him and expertly whipping the car around a corner, then accelerating straight up the short driveway to the steel gate, smashing it aside with a horrific crunch and a spray of sparks. The car jolted violently as the front end folded up, accordion-like, against the parked limo on the opposite side of the gate. The second their momentum was arrested, the esper shoved a hand at Nagato, and slapped another on Arakawa's shoulder, spending a bit more effort than usual to push them through the barriers without physically moving.

"Get out!" he snapped at both, once they'd entered the monochrome sealed reality. The bulk of a Shinjin stood directly before them, already smashing the Tsuruya Estate into a pile of debris. Nagato reacted more quickly than he could, shoving the dented door free of the closed-space version of the car, then tearing the jammed seatbelt off him.

After a desperate scramble, all three of them made it back through the remains of the gate, running on foot down the street and away from the massive giant. "Okay," Itsuki gasped, once they were far enough away to catch their breath. "Sorry."

"Better than being arrested," Arakawa opined, dabbing at a cut on his forehead with a handkerchief. Standing up, he fixed Nagato with a curious stare. "Are you really Nagato-san?"

She blinked, face impassive. "Yes," she answered, in Haruhi's voice.

Itsuki shook his head quickly. "Eh, Nagato-san, when I'm in closed space, I can't tell what's in real space, except for when I'd come out inside a solid object, like another person," he said. "Usually it just wouldn't be an issue. Kimidori-san took a, um, sample of my makeup. Unless I'm mistaken, you both know how my powers work?"

She nodded, and Arakawa's expression paled.

"Can you see across to base reality?"

Nagato stared at him and blinked, contemplating. "Yes," she said after a moment.

"Okay," Itsuki said, turning to look at the Shinjin. Even as he watched, a pair of red orbs streaked towards it. "I'm going to help my colleagues out, then I'm going to need to ask you for a favor."

She blinked at him, then nodded slightly again.

XXX

Oishi slammed on the brakes at the end of the block outside of the Tsuruya Estate. The car skidded to a halt on the wet road, blocking the driveway entrance to the compound, and the detective admitted, "Whoever that driver is, he's quite good."

Akasaka grunted in response, disconnecting his current phone call.

Both detectives got out of the vehicle and ran to the opposite side of the street, taking cover behind another parked car. The flashing lights on the police vehicle they had abandoned would be hard to miss, but given the damage that Koizumi Itsuki's driver had done to the gate, not to mentioned the crumpled remains of the empty car he had been in... No one was driving out of the Tsuruya Estate.

"We should have about three minutes," he said, glancing up at the rainy sky. There was no predawn glow yet, and as thick as the clouds were, it would probably be hours at best before there was any sign of daylight. "A support vehicle will be arriving within a minute or two of that."

The detective shook his head, glancing to one side when he saw the flashing lights of other patrol cars responding to the earlier radio calls reporting the supposed abduction of Suzumiya Haruhi. Or maybe it was a legitimate abduction, and they were being played for fools? He couldn't think of a way to tell anymore. "What's the Special Assault Team going to do, anyway?" he asked, trying to take his mind off things that scratched at the edges of his comprehension. "I've never worked with them before."

"We're going to need to stay out of their way," Akasaka answered, wiping some of the thickly falling rain from his face. "They'll set up a cordon, scan the interior of the estate, and then it's up to the senior tactical officer. I hope we find genuine criminals in there, or I can kiss my pension goodbye."

Oishi grimaced, shaking his head. "I know what you mean," he grumbled. Shortly, they were surrounded by uniformed officers who set up a perimeter around the Tsuruya Estate. Both the detective and NPA agent gave uncomfortable shrugs as the mayor arrived just behind the SAT command vehicle - a large van covered with obvious antenna, dishes, and a matte black finish.

"Perfect," Oishi sighed. "I'll go talk to the mayor."

"Roger that," Akasaka agreed, tugging at the collar of his shirt. "We should have brought umbrellas."

Oishi tried several times to light a cigarette while walking towards the mayor's dark car, shinier than the non-reflective SAT van before it. But the rain was too intense, so he finally gave up, pocketing the cigarette for later use. As he reached the side of the car, the window rolled down automatically. The mayor was a larger man than Oishi, but younger.

His face was clean-shaven, but dark circles beneath his eyes suggested he hadn't gotten much sleep lately. At least they had that much in common, Oishi thought, before the mayor barked out, "Oishi, what the hell is going on here?"

Ah, politics, he thought sourly. "I'll have a report for you later today or tomorrow," Oishi said, too casually. "Normally I'd have my aide do it, but he was murdered."

If anything, the sharp eyes and sour grimace of the mayor hardened. "That is merely a sign of further incompetent handling of the case," he snapped. "I want answers, and I expect them now - the Tsuruya family is well-respected, and the community is going to want answers for..." He trailed off, growling, as a helicopter emerged from the hard rain almost silently, a quartet of commando-geared SAT forces rappelling down to the street and hustling to the van.

"I want a damn good explanation for this fiasco!"

"Alright," Oishi allowed, running one hand across the hair plastered to his head. "After we took Asakura Ryouko - Student A to the press, now - in for questioning, she assaulted and killed my aide during the interview. At the time, I was taking a statement from Suzumiya Haruhi concerning her involvement in an incident at Kitago yesterday." Had it been so recently? It felt so much longer ago... "After escaping, Student A returned to her home, incidentally in the same apartment building that Suzumiya Haruhi was staying with a friend from school, Nagato Yuki. When Student A attempted to assault Suzumiya Haruhi..." He trailed off, pressing his lips into a flat line. What was the report he had shakily written up? The lines he gave to his own interviewers? "We struggled for control over her weapon, and Student A crashed through the window, falling seven stories."

"I know that," the mayor said dourly, looking at something else in the dark interior of his car briefly, then fixing his irate gaze on Oishi again. "How has that lead to this?"

"Well, after taking her statement, it was no longer necessary to keep Suzumiya Haruhi in protective custody, so we returned her to her friend."

"Nothing says compassion like returning a minor to the scene of a classmate's death," the mayor sniped.

Oishi turned his face upward, letting the rain pelt him and closing his eyes. "How long was Kitago closed before students were told to return?"

The mayor cleared his throat noisily. "Detective, please continue with the report."

"Well, Akasaka-san and I were at Nagato Yuki's apartment comparing notes before we returned to the station house, when he saw Koizumi Itsuki, a person of interest from the investigation, abducting Suzumiya Haruhi."

"So, Suzumiya's in there?" the mayor asked, his eyes shifting to something in the car.

Oishi blinked rain from his eyes and tried to remain casual. Why would the mayor care about that? A connection between the mayor and one of the most powerful families in the city was sensible enough ... they could have contributed to his campaign fund, or maybe even rallied public support for him. But why would he be interested in Suzumiya Haruhi, unless... The detective made himself stop thinking about it; time for that later.

"Presumably," he answered the mayor at length. "At this point, I have to admit that this is all out of my hands. It's an NPA operation now, so if you don't like how it's being handled, you can appeal to the director of the Department of Safety."

The mayor wore his furious mask still, but seemed more distracted in behavior than anything else. "I see," he said, rolling up the window. The detective took a step backward and watched the car, wondering.

"'Organization', huh?" Oishi mused quietly as the mayor's car backed away from the three-ring circus of special forces and regular police surrounding the Tsuruya Estate. 


	7. Chapter six: The last sunrise

Error in Calculation

Chapter Six: The Last Sunrise

A 'Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' fanfiction.

Disclaimer: The novel 'Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu'/'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. ;)

Additionally, a character or two is borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07, but don't read too much into that. This chapter also features some incredibly heavy-handed Hyperion Cantos references, borrowed with all due respect from Dan Simmons (as referenced in the original Haruhi novels), so feel free to read LOTS into that.

Note: The soundtrack for the final scene is Fixed Mind (as sung by Shiratori Yuri; this is Kimidori Emiri's image song).  


* * *

Akasaka climbed into the control vehicle, which was a very large van, but crammed full of sensitive monitoring equipment, each station with a technician or officer behind it. Ostensibly, the Special Assault Team reported to the National Police Agency, which meant that he was in charge, so he turned to the tactical officer, who was intent on an earpiece and the monitor in front of him.

"Sir," the tactical officer said, not looking up.

"What do we have?"

"We have heat signatures from the compound." Akasaka leaned in to study the screen; it appeared to be a feed from the helicopter overhead, examining a central garden in the estate, some mound covered with a tarp in the sand garden. The somewhat shaky image zoomed in on something sticking out from the edge of the tarp, resolution picking up until a hand could be recognized.

He took a deep breath.

"Judging by the setup we see here, there are two hostages in the interior section," the tactical officer added, switching views to a thermal scan, evidently able to pierce the building's roof. The outlines of two faintly visible forms were prone on the floor of one of the rooms, another pair of figures pacing back and forth around them. More figures were flocking to defensive positions. "We see twelve hostiles, counting the two who are with the hostages."

"Can we get them out?" Two hostages ... Tsuruya herself, and Asahina Mikuru?

"The house has a classical layout," the tactical officer said, breaking from his intense scrutiny of the screen, though one hand remained on his earpiece. "Tactical strong and weak points for this type of structure have been known for literally centuries. These terrorists seem to know them, too, and I don't see anyone moving to negotiate. We don't believe there are any hardwired explosives, but they could be concealed, or the entire place could be rigged to burn. You were right to call us in; these people are playing for keeps."

Akasaka nodded slowly. "Alright," he said. "I'm going to confer with the local police forces. Keep me updated."

The tactical officer saluted sharply, then turned back to his terminal, activating his radio briefly to bark out a few code-worded commands.

After stepping back out into the rain, he found Oishi staring bemusedly down the street. "Something on your mind?" he asked the detective.

Oishi glanced back, crossing his arms over his chest. "Let's go somewhere I can smoke," he answered.

Akasaka shrugged, and the two meandered a few dozen yards away, to a closed shopfront with an awning that provided some cover. After Oishi had fished a dry cigarette out of his pack, he lit it, and while his hands were still cupped around his mouth, said, "The mayor was very interested in Suzumiya Haruhi's whereabouts."

The NPA agent blinked, considering that. "Don't know if that means anything," he said, shaking his head. "But we've got a problem."

At Oishi's glance, he outlined the situation.

"Hmm," Oishi murmured, frowning. "Well. Why not just have those ... people take care of it?" he asked, covering his mouth to draw from his cigarette as he spoke.

Following the detective's example, the NPA agent wiped rain from his face, asking, "You know how to?"

Taking one final drag, the detective suggested, "Try calling Nagato-san's apartment. Kimidori-san should be there, right?"

"It's probably our best chance." Akasaka couldn't keep himself from sighing. "You have her number?"

Oishi nodded, pulling his phone from his pocket and handing it over to the NPA agent.

XXX

Itsuki landed amid the ruins of the Tsuruya estate, studying his colleagues as they released their own powers. The blonde woman with the accent and the tanned man with the deep voice. "Greetings, young one," the tanned man said, nodding. "It is fortuitous that we meet again."

Both of the other espers turned to stare over his shoulder quizzically as Arakawa and Nagato approached. "What, you're bringing friends into closed space?" she asked. "It isn't a good time to play around."

"These are my allies," Itsuki offered. "In real space, in this same place, is the time traveler we're trying to find."

"Can we not cross over and bring this person to safety?" the tanned man asked.

"I'm not sure where she is, and here, I can't even tell where the walls and floors of the building should be." He turned to Nagato. "Can you help?"

"Data manipulation is difficult here," she answered after a moment. "I will submit your request to my superiors." She blinked almost instantly. "The request has been granted." With that, she suddenly started spewing out a stream of syllables, too fast for Itsuki to pick out meaning. The debris of the house collapsed, billowing up in a massive cloud of particles, clearing suddenly to reveal an intact house.

The other two espers raised their eyebrows, impressed at the display.

Her eyes - Haruhi's eyes at the moment, but Nagato's gaze out of them - turned back to Itsuki. "Oishi-san sends a message. SAT teams are unable to swiftly extract hostages Asahina-san and Tsuruya-san. It is up to us." Her eyes turned back to the house, and she raised a hand, spitting out a shorter stream of words.

Hazy outlines of human figures sprang into view, filled with jittering, static, vibrating black and white particles, but looking strangely flat to Itsuki's view.

"What in the hells..." the blonde murmured, looking at Nagato questioningly. "What are you?"

"Irrelevant," Nagato answered, blinking flatly. "Time is critical." She slowly paced into the Tsuruya estate, walking through a two-dimensional image of a man holding something in his hands.

Itsuki quickly trotted to her side, glancing around as Nagato opened the door and led the way inside. Shortly, they found the center of the house, where two figures were laying prone on the floor, and two more paced around the room. Arakawa and the other espers followed.

"The speed of dimensional fault traversal appears to be decreasing," Nagato noted. "There is no surety that you will be able to act before being observed if you cross at this juncture." She paused. "I should be sent first."

"I agree," Itsuki said, frowning. He glanced at the other two espers, adding, "We'll pool our strength and send Nagato-san and Arakawa-san across. Then I'll go, and try and send everyone back."

"How do we do that?" the blonde asked, furrowing her brow.

"If we pool our strength and work together," the tanned man said, "then we should maintain our link with him across the closed space boundary."

"If I can borrow your strength," Itsuki said, bowing to the other espers.

"Right, sure," the blonde woman grumbled.

The tanned man agreed, "Our hearts are united."

Arakawa reached into his coat and pulled out his knife; a long, straight double-edged blade. "I should go first," he began, before Nagato shook her head and overrode him.

"My defensive capabilities are superior. I am prepared to act."

"I'm not sure-"

"Let's not fight about it," Itsuki said, wincing internally at correcting the man who had been a superior to him for so long. "Nagato-san might be able to do it alone."

"It would be difficult to cross the dimensional fault," she noted.

"Alright," Itsuki said, shaking his head, holding a hand out to the other two espers and embracing his power. "Let's do it."

XXX

Back in the SAT van, feeling like an invader despite his authority over the forces involved, Akasaka tried to stay out of the way of the technicians and officers manning their terminals. In the meantime, he kept one finger nervously poised over the 'send' button on the cell phone in his pocket.

"Movement," the chief tactical officer said, frowning. "I don't- There's an extra heat signature in the main room! Make that two, no, three now!"

"Move in," Akasaka ordered, one press of his finger sending a message from his cell phone.

Giving him one brief, doubtful glance, the tactical officer followed the order he was given, barking out instructions over the radio as the tactical sub-chiefs followed suit. Around the Tsuruya estate, eighteen Special Assault Team forces began their silent invasion. Uncomfortable with watching the outcome, Akasaka opened the rear door of the van to rejoin Oishi, who was relaying a report to a uniformed officer in the cover of the nearby awning. A noiseless burst of light behind them signaled contact.

It had begun.

XXX

Nagato recorded her observations of traversing the dimensional fault. The phenomenon had only been directly experienced four times by any interface so far, and her automatic archival functions still classified it as newly created data, compared to the Integrated Data Entity. It was worth noting that the interval of transfer was much faster with all three of the espers working together: merely one tenth of a second.

She had placed herself between the two forms on the floor, Asahina Mikuru, and Tsuruya, with defenses prepared; the two other figures in the room, unidentified males in similarly nondescript tan outfits turned towards her. She analyzed their weapons and altered the attributes of the propellant to render it noncombustible.

They pulled the triggers of their weapons, which then emitted tiny sparks and puffing noises as the primers ignited into the inert gunpowder. In the moment that they paused to look at their pistols in alarm, Arakawa transitioned through the dimensional fault, rushing towards the nearest man with his knife at the ready. Her library referenced his posture and stance as practiced manuevers, and without bringing the blade to bear, he violently shoved the first man across the room to slam into the wall.

Koizumi Itsuki transitioned next, rushing the last man. Nagato Yuki expanded her awareness of the area, searching with all senses and sensors for approaching hostiles before turning to Tsuruya. The girl was staring at her in surprise, wriggling where she'd been left on the floor, her wrists and ankles bound. Nagato Yuki altered the tensile resistance of her bonds, then reached town and drew a finger through them, freeing her.

After a few cycles running the logistics, she also altered Tsuruya's physical state to restore damage caused by days of being bound. Tsuruya scrambled to Asahina Mikuru's side as Nagato Yuki stood straight once more, relaying the message sent via PPC from Kimidori Emiri: "We must leave now."

Arakawa and Koizumi Itsuki had finished with the two men, but Nagato Yuki could sense many more forces approaching.

"What's going on?" Tsuruya demanded, crouching over her friend and looking around in bewilderment.

"No time," Koizumi Itsuki snapped, dashing to Asahina Mikuru's side and lifting her in his arms. He focused, and the girl completed the dimensional traversal quickly.

"Hey!" Tsuruya explained, her features showing alarm. "What-"

"No time!" he repeated, pushing the other girl through her own crossing. Arakawa was sent through next, and Nagato Yuki invoked a personal shield around herself and Koizumi to ensure he would not be harmed during the final traversal. After they had returned to the other side of the dimensional fault, she sent the termination code for the function.

XXX

Itsuki trembled in the closed space, falling back to sit and heave nervously.

"Trouble?" the blonde asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"It went pretty well," he replied shakily.

Arakawa nodded, surveying the group. "You did very well for your first fight," he said, placing a comforting hand on Itsuki's shoulder.

"Fight?" the tanned man asked. "Were there injuries?"

"Someone tell me what's going on!" Tsuruya screamed, crouching protectively over Mikuru's form and glaring at everyone else.

All eyes turned to the frightened girl with the wild, panicked eyes.

"Sorry," Itsuki said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "You're Tsuruya-san, yes?"

"Yeah," she said warily.

"The head of your family was recently approached by a group called the 'Organization' and offered a place within their hierarchy," Arakawa explained. "He declined. The people who invaded your home were members of that group. We came to rescue yourself and Asahina-san."

"Oh? Dad sent you?" Tsuruya asked, suddenly calming. "You sure took your sweet time!"

"It's more complicated than that," Itsuki said dryly, before turning to Nagato. "Can you move us out of here?"

"Data manipulation is difficult here," she answered without hesitation.

"Well, where are we, anyway?" Tsuruya mused, looking around, before peering at Nagato thoughtfully, eyes widening. "Didn't I see you in a bunny-girl outfit with Mikuru-chan? Haha! Nice! Bunny-girl heroine!"

"Negative," Nagato replied, blinking. "I am assuming the physical image of Suzumiya Haruhi."

"So, you're some kind of magical girl, then?"

Nagato blinked several times, then said, "I have been called 'magical computer girl Nagato Yuki' by Suzumiya Haruhi."

Itsuki shook his head; Nagato's sense of humor was absolutely starting to weird him out. "Let's talk about this later," he said. "Um ... Tsuruya-san, I suppose you can come with us if you like, but we need to take Asahina-san to safety."

"Noooooo," Tsuruya said slowly, shaking her head, a strange gleam in her eyes. "She's not going out of my sight! I'm sticking with her, and if you try anything funny, you're going to get a Tsuruya-kick, nyoro!"

"Right," the blonde said, shaking her head. "Now I've seen everything. Hey, crazy girl, you mind if I carry her?"

Tsuruya eyed the blonde girl up and down, then shrugged, "I'll carry her."

The blonde allowed one eyebrow to tic in irritation before embracing her power, drifting a few feet off the floor, the dimly visible red halo that surrounded her shimmering in the closed space light. "It'll be lots faster if you let me carry her," she said.

Tsuruya blinked in surprise, her eyes widening. "Okay, then!" she allowed, suddenly grinning. "You must be a magical girl, too!"

"She's handling her first exposure to closed space rather well," Itsuki remarked to Arakawa.

"There could be plenty of other sources of trauma," the older man remarked darkly in a low tone.

Itsuki grimaced at the reminder. "Right," he sighed, holding out a hand and embracing his own power. "Okay, Tsuruya-san, if you don't mind coming with me?" Nodding at the other espers, he added, "I'll show you where we need to go."

XXX

Tsuruya wasn't sure what was going on, and she still hadn't found much cause to smile or laugh. She was searching, and the events she'd been through in the last few minutes were certainly better, but there was no guarantee she wasn't just imagining things. So after an exhilarating, dizzying trip across the strangely gray city, being hauled by a flying person to some apartment building she didn't recognize, she was left alone with the girl who called herself Nagato Yuki, and Mikuru.

She tried to busy herself with fussing over her friend, but Mikuru didn't rouse at all.

"So ... can you explain any of this to me, magical girl?" she finally asked. She was relatively sure that it was Suzumiya Haruhi ... but maybe Nagato Yuki was her magical girl identity?

Nagato's eyes turned from some point on the horizon and fixed on her, blinked once. "Maybe," she replied in a soft monotone.

"What's going on with Mikuru-chan, then?" she tried instead.

Turning her gaze back to the far horizon, Nagato said, "She has been sedated."

"Well, I knew that! I meant, can you help her?"

"When we return to the baseline physical reality."

Puffing her cheeks out and realizing it made her look like a petulant child, she joined Nagato in staring at the eerie gray sky, until another one of those streaking crimson orbs lit up in the distance. Very quickly, it zoomed towards them, stopping suddenly in the window and releasing the boy she had threatened to kick. He looked very tired.

"Okay," he said, rubbing at his face. "Arakawa's back at the safe house. Is it safe in the hallway, Nagato-san?"

She nodded slightly. "The protections that would slow your transition have been momentarily disabled."

"Good, I'll bring Asahina-san and Tsuruya-san across first." Before he could move towards Mikuru, Tsuruya picked her friend up. He placed a hand on Tsuruya's shoulder and said, "Close your eyes and walk forward very carefully."

She did as he said, clutching Mikuru tightly. She felt her sense of balance waver, but only momentarily before she recovered.

After a long shuffling pause, he said, "You can open your eyes." She did so, looking back over her shoulder warily, but the boy was already distorting into an oddly colorless version of himself, before he vanished.

The hallway was empty except for an open apartment door, where a girl with short hair and glasses stood. "Come in," she said genially.

There was little doubt that she was back in her own world ... and she contemplated making a break for it with Mikuru, finding the rest of her family and hiding in a deep bunker, but before she could finish considering the plan, the boy had returned behind her, along with Nagato.

"You'd better not hurt her," Tsuruya grumbled, looking at them all warily, but carrying Mikuru inside anyway.

Nagato and the other girl looked at one another for a moment, then both of them wavered, shifting forms.

Now Nagato was the one with short hair, and the other one - whatever her name was - was taller, with pale green hair and eyes. She turned to face Tsuruya abruptly, offering a small smile. "You must be Tsuruya-san," she said, bowing. "I'm Kimidori Emiri. I apologize for your confusion."

The boy snorted, closing the door behind him and slumping to the floor, exhausted. "How's Haruhi?" he mumbled. "Also, glasses again."

"She's doing as well as she can, Koizumi-san," Emiri answered, her smile fading slightly. She took off her glasses and handed them to Nagato, who silently donned them after closing the door. "But, that's fine. Now that Asahina-san is here, we should be able to proceed with the plan."

"What are you planning on doing with Mikuru?" Tsuruya asked suspiciously.

"We will scan her and attempt to connect with her neural interfaces," Emiri explained. Nagato walked into one of the side rooms. "If we cannot interface without triggering safeguards, we will attempt to wake her."

Tsuruya crossed her arms over her chest and stood between Emiri and Mikuru. "Why not wake her up first?"

"It is possible that automatic safeguards, given her current state, may trigger a defensive mechanism that returns her to her time of origin."

"Did you say time of origin?" Tsuruya asked, eyes widening. "She's from another time?"

"And yet, the 'magical girls' don't bother you at all?" the boy - Koizumi - asked, staring at her somewhat incredulously.

"Eh ... no, it's... Um. Hmm." She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Magical girls, okay. Time travelers, okay. But both at the same time? Seems kinda farfetched, doesn't it?"

Koizumi stared at her, then raised his eyes to the ceiling. "Okay," he said. "Different kinds of magical girls, then. Mikuru's kind can time travel."

"Oh! Well, that makes sense, then. So, how are you a magical girl?"

"Never mind that," Koizumi said, turning to Emiri. "Neural interfaces?"

"Yes. She has a complex artificial neural network mapped to most regions of her organic brain, attached to various internal devices."

"You mean, like ... cybernetic implants?"

"Yes," Emiri agreed.

"That explains a lot," Koizumi mused. "Actually, I had suspicions about that."

"As did we." Emiri turned her attention to Tsuruya again. "We will not cause permanent harm to Asahina Mikuru, but I am going to inject her with nanomachines to examine her more thoroughly."

"More injections," Tsuruya growled. "If you're not going to wake her up, she's had enough of that! She's my friend, not something for you to use!"

Nagato returned bearing a tea set, which she placed on the table.

Emiri's smile faded. "Please be reasonable, Tsuruya-san. I don't wish to force the issue, but you cannot oppose us here."

"Just you try it!" Tsuruya challenged, bristling. She didn't know how this was going to work out - the last time she'd tried to fight for Mikuru it hadn't ended well - but that was no reason to give up!

"As you wish," Emiri said, raising one hand from her side.

"Kimidori," Nagato called, freezing the other girl in place.

Tsuruya hopped over Mikuru and resumed crouching, so she could try and watch both of them more easily.

Some invisible communication seemed to pass between Emiri and Nagato, and the raised hand dropped to Emiri's side. "Very well," the light-green haired girl allowed.

"Tsuruya-san," Nagato said, "I will attempt to awaken Asahina Mikuru, if you wish."

"Y...yeah, okay," Tsuruya allowed.

Nagato went to Mikuru's side and knelt, then placed her palm on the prone girl's forehead. After a moment, she pulled it away. "I will need to inject her to rouse her, as directly manipulating her data could result in unforeseen consequences," she said. "If it reassures you, Asahina Mikuru and I attend the same club at school."

"Yeah?" Tsuruya asked, suspicious. "W...well ... okay, then... But I'm telling you! If you try anything sneaky it's a Tsuruya-kick, nyoro!"

"Understood," Nagato replied, before taking Mikuru's wrist in her hand, raising it to her mouth, and biting it.

"Why don't you use fingernails for that?" Koizumi mused aloud, rubbing at his right wrist absently. "Wouldn't that be more convenient?"

"The organic mechanisms for teeth with the ability to inject fluid substances already occur naturally in this world," Emiri answered, pouring a cup of tea and handing it to the exhausted boy. "We are assembled from more readily found traits in local nature so as to be minimally divergent while not requiring constant self-modification to take samples or administer nanomachines."

Koizumi snorted, shaking his head and sipping his tea as Mikuru moaned softly, and Nagato lowered her wrist from her mouth.

"Am I back in the terminus?" Mikuru asked groggily. "My neural safeguards aren't registering..."

"You're awake!" Tsuruya cried gleefully, throwing herself at her friend and wrapping her in a hug.

"Korben!" Mikuru tried to yell, struggling weakly in her grasp, though her voice was muffled in Tsuruya's shoulder. "Get her off... Wait... What the hell!"

Tsuruya released Mikuru and stared at her in consternation. "Y...you don't remember me?" And when had Mikuru used language like that?

"So, she wouldn't have happened to have substantial conditioning in her neural ... stuff, would she?" Koizumi asked, giving a knowing smirk before he sipped his tea again.

"Those restrictions have been removed," Nagato said.

"You hacked my implants!" Mikuru yelped, staring at Nagato, aghast. "That's so dangerous!"

"W...what's going on?" Tsuruya groaned, grabbing her head. Why didn't her friend recognize her?

"Eh... Um... Sorry, Tsuruya," Mikuru replied, shaking her head, then hesitantly hugging her friend back. "I'm just ... a little confused is all."

"You still remember me?" That was all that mattered to Tsuruya; Mikuru was awake, and ... mostly okay! That was something to smile about, finally.

"Of course! I just remember, um, a bunch of other stuff, too."

Finding a moment of silence to interject, Nagato said, "Your implants have been disabled so that you could be awoken without triggering any defensive or automated systems. This is temporary."

"You're trying to steal time travel technology from me," she accused, narrowing her eyes.

"We wish to acquire it."

"Why?" Mikuru asked, shaking her head slightly.

"Asahina-san, there's any number of questions I'd love to take this opportunity to ask," Koizumi remarked, handing his drained teacup to Emiri, "but we don't really have that much time. Do you remember what happened to Kyon?"

"I ... um ... y...yes." Her eyes drifted shut, tears trickling out. "I remember, now. I went to visit Tsuruya, because I couldn't believe it... How could it be meant to be that way?"

"Well." He glanced at Nagato. "We're being rather careless; is it possible that Suzumiya-san might overhear us?"

"The door is soundproofed," she answered him. "She will not hear us. We will be notified if she awakens."

"Right," Koizumi said, nodding, seeming to find his mental track again. "This world is going to be destroyed. We have to go back in time and prevent Asakura Ryouko from killing Kyon."

"B...but, no, that can't be right," Mikuru said, shaking her head more quickly. "I mean, I don't want him to die either! But that would create a paradox! You'd most likely just shatter this time-plane!"

"Not absolutely," Emiri said. "Details of this plan may be difficult to convey, but Nagato Yuki has arranged to temporarily transfer Suzumiya Haruhi's power into herself for the purposes of rewriting reality with the precise control of an interface, and none of the risks of Suzumiya-san becoming aware of it. However, in order for this to work, we must have several components.

"Firstly, we need a reasonable anchor to pinpoint the baseline instance of Suzumiya Haruhi person of interest before death and give us a target insertion point. Secondly, we need Suzumiya Haruhi to believe that it is possible to do without paradox. Thirdly, we need the ability to go back in time and accomplish this. The only component missing at this point is time travel."

"The Integrated Data Entity is going to get a lot out of this," Mikuru mumbled, patting Tsuruya's back thoughtfully. "Well, I wish I could help you, but I don't have a time machine. We don't have any physical devices at all, outside of our impants. All of my tools are thought-projections visible to me via augmented reality. So, our time travel works by synchronizing our implants to a master control through time. Effectively, the source of our time travel is stationary in time itself, and reaches out to move us when required. I just have a beacon."

Nagato blinked. "That is time travel," she noted. "It is very likely that we can observe the signals you send through time and determine the functionality ourselves."

Tsuruya released Mikuru long enough to look at her face, but the other girl looked surprised, thoughtful. "That may be true," she allowed. "I'm just not used to being here without almost all of my nonessential memories locked off. But what about the possibility of far future sensors capturing signals at varying distances beyond Earth, calculating delay, and then everything being sent back from the master source?"

"That would be remarkably inefficient," Emiri said. "In any case, the crucial issue is that we would like your permission to attempt to reverse-engineer the technology."

"I'll ask my superiors," Mikuru replied doubtfully, raising one hand to her head. Her eyes became distant, dull, then abruptly snapped back into focus. "Denied," she sighed, tears shimmering in her eyes. "And they're really mad about my safeguards being disabled. Automated recall in thirty seconds. Y...you can try tracking me when I'm recalled, but they might just strand me here if they detect additional nanomachines in my bloodstream."

"What?" Tsuruya yelped, lunging at Mikuru and grabbing her tightly. "No! I won't allow it! I'm not failing you again!"

"N...no," Mikuru said anxiously, struggling weakly, "Tsuruya, it's not safe! You have to let me go! Twenty seconds!"

"We will help," Emiri said quickly, as Nagato rushed to Tsuruya's side, leaning in and biting her wrist. "And you will help us."

"Ouchie!" Tsuruya exclaimed, only realizing after the fact that it didn't hurt. Her entire body started to tingle, and she felt the room around her grow dim as a silver nimbus began radiating from her skin. "Oooh! I'm a magical girl now, too, Mikuru! We'll get to fight for love and justice together, nyoro!" she cheered.

"Tsuruya!" Mikuru wailed, still struggling. "Five seconds!"

Tsuruya clung even more tightly. "It's okay!" This time she'd be able to help her friend, and that was something worthy of a huge grin. She couldn't even help the cheerful laugh that escaped her if she had wanted to.

"Chronoton tracking system and temporal shielding enabled," Nagato said, backing away, just as all reality folded away into disorienting nothingness.

XXX

Hands shaking slightly, Itsuki spent a moment longer staring at the place where reality had ... cracked open around the two girls they had spent so long trying to find. Mostly around Asahina, really, but he was vaguely surprised that Tsuruya had been able to go with her.

"At least they made it out," he said aloud. "Though, I can't help but think that if her superiors still existed, presumably in the future, then the world must not end," Koizumi mused. "So, how does that work?"

"It is working," Nagato answered after a moment, while both her and Emiri stared intently into the space where the girls had vanished, only the faintest drifting particles of glowing silver remaining, winking out one by one. "Our superiors are diverging from consensus and combining resources."

"Wait, what? You were able to actually figure it out from watching that?"

"The particles that Tsuruya-san trailed will allow us to track their trajectory through time, as well as making the mechanism that is used for time travel possible."

"The shielding that Nagato installed should ensure that she arrives at the end timepoint intact," Emiri added. "To the best of our abilities, at least. There is a nonzero possibility that when this reality is merged with our ideal repaired reality, Tsuruya-san will also exist in a secondary divergent iteration from the present at the end timepoint."

Itsuki nodded tiredly, then went to the table and reached a shaking hand towards the teapot. Emiri reached it first, refilling the cup he had handed her earlier. After a soothing sip of the hot beverage, he curled his hands around the cup, seeking solace in its warmth. "So ... now what?" he asked.

Returning to the table, Nagato pulled the napkin from the crystal ball, and he quickly looked away, staring out the window. The thing still sparkled in the corner of his eyes and itched at the edges of his esper senses.

"And what do you need her for, anyway?" he added.

"Asakura Ryouko's faction is more readily able to implement our discoveries," Emiri explained. "However, we do not trust them, so we are using forced emulation through her waveform to simulate their input."

"Hmmm..." He closed his eyes, nodding. "I thought you might have factions. Can you tell me about them?"

"My faction is best represented with the word 'Compromise'. Nagato-san's would be 'Thinking', and Asakura Ryouko's would be 'Innovative'."

"Interesting. Anyway, assuming you pull this off, is there any chance anyone but you will remember it?"

"Unlikely," Nagato answered. "Asahina Mikuru may retain memories, but her automatic censoring system will likely not allow her to recall them outside of her primary time plane." He heard the sound of cloth shifting, and opened an eye cautiously to see the crystal sphere was covered again. "It is done."

"That fast?" Itsuki asked.

"There is insufficient time to construct a physical device," Nagato added.

He sighed, draining his teacup. "So, we lost anyway?" he asked.

"One of us can go back," Emiri said, shaking her head. "Our united factions have that much power. It will be Nagato-san, as she has already acquired the necessary permissions from Suzumiya Haruhi. Asahina-san's method of time travel is crude and unrefined; we have developed a superior form that will not require physical mechanisms, but also is less well suited towards transmitting physical matter."

"Well, is that important?" Itsuki asked. "As I understand it, you can convert yourselves into pure data, right? Couldn't one of you just ... copy the other one and then go back?"

"Yes," Nagato answered.

Emiri nodded. "Nagato-san, when I am restored, assuming that I suffer no instabilities of my own, I will do my best to watch over you."

Nagato blinked, something changing around her eyes that Itsuki was able to spot, but not quite name. "Thank you," she finally said. "I am leaving now."

Itsuki was ready to ask another question, but Nagato vanished in an eerie puff of blue light and a sharp scent of ozone. At the same time, Emiri closed her eyes and fell over onto her side, suddenly limp.

XXX

The entire SAT operation from Akasaka's signal had taken less than three minutes. Despite that, after taking all twelve terrorists alive, there was no sign of the hostages. The tactical control officer was livid, demanding a technician come in immediately and inspect the thermal imaging scanner.

The rain still sheeted down, as it had almost constantly since the entire case began, but neither he nor Oishi cared for the moment. The detective still waited beneath the awning he had found, smoking another cigarette, so Akasaka had just dumped the responsibility of the initial incident report on the tactical control officer and went to join him. They hadn't known one another a full week, but they had been in it together, ever since Student K's death.

"Akasaka-kun," Oishi greeted him, nodding and flicking his cigarette into a nearby puddle. "What do you think the final report is going to be like?"

"Koizumi Itsuki was sighted, but escaped," Akasaka said at length. "There's no sign of Tsuruya-san, Suzumiya-san, or Asahina-san." He furrowed his brow. "The missing persons angle will still be an issue, especially since Koizumi Itsuki and Suzumiya-san were seen going into the estate. However, SOCO is already going over the scene right now ... except for Tsuruya-san herself, it seems her entire staff was killed."

"Pity," Oishi said, grimacing. "How many?"

"Five," Akasaka answered. "Two maids, a butler, a chef, and a driver. The men also probably doubled as bodyguards. Initial examination says gunshot wounds. I'm confused as to why they were doing it all, though. How long did they expect to go unnoticed?"

"And what's so important about Asahina Mikuru, if she was there?"

"We could call Kimidori-san and ask," Akasaka said doubtfully.

"I don't think we'd get a straight answer out of them, now that they have what they were looking for."

The NPA agent nodded.

"Still," Oishi mused, "let's begin with a central premise. All of this started because Asakura Ryouko killed Student K."

Akasaka nodded again. "I suppose it must have," he allowed. "You said that Kimidori-san asked Asakura why she killed him ... what were her words?"

"Something about ... the 'observation subject's life form of interest,' I believe. Nagato-san and Kimidori-san wanted to know why she had done it."

"Right. And we know that supposedly the world will be destroyed because of Suzumiya-san's emotional state."

"That's what we've been told," Oishi agreed. "If we believe that, then I can only guess that ... whatever those people are ... Asahina Mikuru was one of them. Probably Tsuruya-san, too. Koizumi-san called himself an esper, and said that the others were ... well, neither of us know what those letters mean. We can call them anything, I suppose, but for now let's just say, 'faction A'."

"Right, and then we can label espers 'faction B'," Akasaka said thoughtfully. "Kimidori-san took the charge from a stun-gun without batting an eyelash. So, we can guess that Asahina Mikuru wouldn't belong to faction A, or else she would have been much harder to stop."

"That follows," Oishi said, nodding. "So, she's another part of faction B?"

"Or a third faction."

"Probably that," the detective said after a long moment. "Kimidori-san also mentioned that they needed Asahina-san to 'repair' the damage."

"This might be a bit of a long shot," Akasaka said slowly, "but do you suppose that she can ... bring Student K back to life?"

Oishi looked up thoughtfully, then gazed towards the cloudy skies beyond the awning. "Probably," he allowed. "I think Nagato-san said that it was impossible without her. In any case, if we haven't been deceived or just snapped due to pressure, I have to say ... Student K may be the most important person on the planet, living or dead."

The two were silent for a long time as the pounding rain suddenly lessened to a drizzle, then tapered into a sprinkling mist.

"I hope he knows it," Akasaka sighed.

XXX

To generate power for the leap, Nagato disengaged herself from her organic body at the same time as Kimidori, folding the other interface's waveform into her internal storage, then triggering a function to consume all of the security and safeguards they had set up in the apartment. Those functions were diverted to change the attribute data of her body's composition, which was then annihilated in a condensed, carefully contained reaction, simultaneously providing her more processing power and disrupting local temporal reality.

Above and around her, Moderates and Innovators had banded together with Volatiles; her own Thinkers and Emiri's Compromisers had been reinforced by the Stables, but the data-war was waging on every nonphysical plane of reality; the screams of the dying echoed across the data-medium. Countless other factions had split off to form their own temporary unities, only the Ultimates and Reapers standing alone.

The last vestiges of Emiri and Nagato's factions manifested in the dataspace around Nagato's microscopic temporal/physical reality breach, using their own dying data structures to assemble the thought-mechanism that would propel her back in time. Even as they moved to act, other factions emerged, desperate to try and observe - or stop, or possess - but interfere, regardless.

She was dimly aware of some other even more alien force entering the dataspace, striking first at the Reapers, distracting the combatants away from them immediately. All happened in the instant; less than a picosecond. Foreign data structures recklessly disassembled the Integrated Data Entity's entropy function; if the current conflict had somehow been overcome, there would be no return to functionality. Not after that.

The Ultimates reacted then as the alien force lashed, seemingly blindly, totally chaotically, overwriting the Stables with random tendrils of misinformation; a sea of bad sectors flowed from the rent crystalline regularity that had once been one of the longest surviving factions of the Integrated Data Entity. While the union was vulnerable and the time-mechanism was still being arranged, the Ultimates enveloped them.

The directive of the Ultimates would not tolerate immediate contact with physical existence; their goal was the ultimate in evolution for the Integrated Data Entity as a whole. She could not produce a number that would represent the chances of them becoming involved with her faction, or Emiri's, but it had happened, and now it meant the end of their efforts. No small band of factions could hope to stand against them, and the entire processing power and data of their united factions was already devoted exclusively to sending her and her data cargo back through the temporal breach.

But as she watched, the Ultimates merely surrounded the united factions and their data structures, not moving to observe, aid, or interfere. For the first time in Nagato Yuki's existence, their faction spoke, first with an echo of the foreign data that tore away its outermost data layers, then, eschewing direct memetic transmission, with four, succinct words, shocking in their confinement to mere language:

MACROSPACIAL  
QUANTUM  
COSMIC  
EXISTENCE

Then a perfect copy of the waveform extracted from Asakura Ryouko; something so secure and hidden that Nagato could not understand how they had found it even with her augmented processing ability; not even the Reapers should have been able to read traces of that data, and one final word:

PROTECT

Then it was done; the data-structures were aligned and she was compressed into a stream of information on a secure carrier wave, shunted back into physical reality and guided through a window less than the width of an atom. Behind her, she was aware of even the Ultimates being destroyed by that alien existence.

-discontinuity-

Her carrier wave was caught automatically by a previous temporal instance of herself, organic body intact, walking out of the school grounds down the hill towards the train station. An additional picosecond was all she needed to annihilate her organic body again; not to create a temporal breach, this time. Back within the dataspace, she corrected her primary function, then observed, briefly, that the consensus had been restored to the state of the moments before the primary protection target's termination.

Queuing a request for a new physical body, she appended a request for combat countermeasures based on her analysis of Asakura Ryouko's captive waveform, and a kill command for Asakura Ryouko's data link. That done, she chained the request to a reprioritizer and launched her future temporal instance of Ryouko's waveform directly at the Reapers with a command for immediate process.

The consensus immediately began to diverge at her breach of protocol; the Reapers were not directly addressed, and maintained their role as an entropy function. They did not choose to involve themselves with other factions. She ignored it; another high-burst package at the Compromise faction encapsulated Kimidori Emiri's divergent temporal waveform, and when automated systems moved to correct her data structures, she broadcast the last messages of the Ultimates to the entire Integrated Data Entity.

Then she was snared in the automated corrective functions of the Reapers; a rogue program to be overwritten and replaced with a more functional interface.

XXX

Itsuki rubbed his forehead and stumbled to his feet, walking to Emiri's side and kneeling next to her to check her for a pulse. Did she normally have a pulse? She didn't, now, and her breath didn't stir. He glanced at the table and peeked underneath the napkin, unsurprised to see the glass sphere appeared empty.

"Well," he said to himself, annoyed, "they all got out."

He looked towards the hall in alarm when he saw Haruhi, dressed in pajamas and rubbing at her eyes with the back of one wrist, trudging down the hall. "What's going on?" she asked groggily, before looking around. "Oh, Koizumi. Where'd Nagato go?"

"I'm not entirely positive," Itsuki admitted. "How are you feeling, Suzumiya-san?"

Haruhi's tired eyes fixed on Emiri before turning to Itsuki with frank disapproval. "Koizumi, be a gentleman and cover your girlfriend up while she's sleeping, why don't you?"

Working his jaw for a long moment while Haruhi trudged to the table and poured herself a cup of tea, Itsuki managed, "Of course," and went to search for bedding.

"Anyway," she continued, when Itsuki found a thick blanket and a pillow for Emiri in the hall closet, "I'm feeling okay. Surprisingly positive. I just got this feeling that somehow, when I wake up next time, it'll be everything bad that happened that was a dream."

"I'd like to think that," he agreed, covering Emiri's form, then placing the pillow beneath her head.

The apartment gave a powerful shudder, though Haruhi was unaffected and didn't seem to notice, tilting her head back and looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Right," she decided. "And on that note, I think it's time to wake up."

Nodding, Itsuki looked at Emiri's still, peaceful form, and took one of her cool hands in his. He wouldn't remember anything, probably, if it worked, and absolutely not if it didn't. "See you on the other side," he said sadly.

"Of course you will," Haruhi murmured, staring out the window as the rain lessened to a fine mist, and the city began to glow with the light of the rising sun.

XXX

BREAK/CEASE/HALT/FREEZE PROCESSES

The voice of the Ultimates, broadcast simultaneously to every nonphysical aspect of Integrated Data Entity. Nagato waited, able to perceive send-requests, but not able to observe anything not broadcast either to the entire entity, or at least her specifically.

NAGATO YUKI IS REASSIGNED AS PRIMARY

The functions binding her in place were terminated.

ALL QUEUED REQUESTS OF NEW PRIMARY NAGATO YUKI ARE TO BE PROCESSED AT HIGHEST PRIORITY

RESUME

The voices of dissenting factions sounded around her, but the word of the Ultimates would not be countered; Emiri's Compromise and her own Thinking faction sided with the Ultimates, and another first in Nagato Yuki's existence, the Reapers also sided with the union. As she was downloaded into her new physical form, she could hear the chorus breaking out anew, arguing over implementation of the new data that she and Kimidori Emiri had brought back.

She ignored them, her organic form wrapped in a thin layer of protective functions. The waveform function that she had borrowed from Suzumiya Haruhi in that other world aligned with suggestions of the Integrated Data Entity recompiling itself to a new state of being outside of time. Even though she had finished the task that she had needed those functions for, she retained them, bursting through the data barriers surrounding the enclosed space that Asakura Ryouko had created to try and kill her primary protection target.

Her optimized combat packages were delivered via the uplink to the Integrated Data Entity and she flew into the room, reorienting herself to land before her primary protection target, destroying several of Asakura Ryouko's automated attack functions in the process of entry.

"That hurts, damn it!"

Her emotive core calmed; he was intact. She had at least thirty-eight microseconds to spare before he was harmed. Minor damage had been taken in her hand, used to block Asakura Ryouko's knife; easily dismissed.

Even so, the bulk of her sensors were on her primary protection target. Superficial damage; light bruising that she could repair later. Her eyes met the gaze of the unit that was now her backup: "Your programs are too weak."

XXX

"Hello, Nagato-san," Kimidori Emiri greeted her.

Nagato Yuki blinked at her fellow interface ... but not the one she had been allied with. An earlier temporal instance. She considered checking the uplink to the Integrated Data Entity to find out if Emiri had synchronized, but decided that it would not be required before the request finished forming.

Instead she studied Emiri's new school uniform. "I see," she said quietly.

Emiri bowed her head. "I'm sorry," she said apologetically. "But, I did promise you that I would look after you, didn't I?"

"I am fine."

"Hmm," Emiri mused as Nagato stepped forward and unlocked the door to her apartment. "After you left the consensus to perform your new duties, the Ultimates had another message for you. But, you know how they feel; they didn't want to tell you personally while you were still in physical form."

Nagato paused, looking over her shoulder.

"You need to be careful," Emiri said, her tone apologetic. "I see you've released the sympathetic waveform that allowed you to control Suzumiya Haruhi's ability to create data?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's probably fine ... but there is a concern among the consensus that your stability may be compromised by the events you have endured."

"I am fine. Errors are unlikely to occur before an interval of at least six hundred years."

"That matches the Stable's predictions," Emiri agreed. "The Ultimates also instated a new protocol, so you should know that outside of emergency situations to be authorized by the consensus, all cross-temporal synchronization is limited to the Ultimates, the Reapers ... and yourself." Then the taller interface's expression shifted to concern. "Even though many factions are aligned with the decisions of the Ultimates, at least for now, a constantly repeated question is why the Ultimates wished you to retain the cross-temporal synchronization function."

Though she calculated the answer already, Nagato asked, "What do the Ultimates say?"

Emiri sighed and turned to look at one of the hallway windows. The same one that, in another reality, now, Asakura Ryouko had been made to crash through. "Nothing. They're silent again. Even though they can synchronize across time, neither they nor the Reapers exhibit observable changes to us."

Nagato blinked. Realized the implications of what Emiri was saying. The other interface had requested from her faction that she could be assigned to assist Nagato. But understanding the plans of the Ultimates would be a huge leap for any faction. So more likely than not, Emiri had been assigned to observe her. "I am sorry," Nagato told her. "The Ultimates are unlikely to allow you to retain any significant insight that I provide you."

Emiri smiled, nodding slightly. "That's most likely true. Do you remember the Macrospacial Quantum Cosmic Existence?"

She said nothing in return. Though Kimidori should have been aware due to her own divergent waveform, logic dictated that the Ultimates had decided that the Integrated Data Entity as a whole should know about it long ago. She would resynchronize with her superiors later, adding whatever was known of them to her own local databases.

"Well, anyway, there are still other things you should know ... namely, what was brought into the consensus is considered quite valuable. Even though we've achieved a new static limit, our previously halted evolution has been advanced. Asakura Ryouko has been removed from the Innovators and reassigned to the Volatiles. Her actions are deemed acceptable, because you, and I suppose myself, have undone the damage while retaining new data."

Nagato could not calculate how Asakura Ryouko's reassignment would impact her, except that the Volatiles were a more influential faction than the Innovators. Even then, the Ultimates were still a higher priority faction.

"I only mention reassignment because of your new unique position," Emiri clarified. "You are now the very first interface to be considered a sub-process of the Ultimates."

"I see," Nagato said quietly. She hadn't tried checking for new access routes, and doubted that she would try speaking to the Ultimates directly anyway. Perhaps at some future juncture, they might try to contact her, but they were more likely to relay a message through subordinates to avoid any chance of memetic alteration by direct exposure to physical reality. Even so, her connection with her Thinking faction had not been altered. "I also remain adherent to my original faction."

"Hmm, yes. Thanks to the ramifications of our new evolution, we have been allowed dual citizenship ... more, in some cases. For now, we truly are cousins, even if I also remain adherent to my original faction. We were never so far apart, were we? But in that case, it follows the letter of my assignment to observe you anyway ... even if I may pass certain observations on to you, first."

Nagato stared at Emiri, processing the information.

"We can be friends," Emiri added. "For a while, I hope. And despite the possible intentions of others, I can promise you, I will never move to harm..." Her smile widened. "Him. I value what we shared. As you know, I'm not fond of conflict, but if the worst happens I'll look after him for you."

The worst would be the nullification of Nagato's own data link and summary deletion. More than what had happened to Asakura Ryouko, who had returned to being a voice in the consensus. If Nagato were more definitively determined to be a rogue element... But then, Suzumiya Haruhi's emotional state was unlikely to deviate as fiercely if something were to happen to Nagato.

Turning to look at the same window, still intact in this existence, Nagato allowed, "Thank you." 


	8. Epilogue

Error in Calculation

Epilogue

A 'Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' fanfiction.

Disclaimer: The novel 'Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu'/'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. ;)

Note: This takes place between novels seven and eight. Additionally, a character or two is borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07, but don't read too much into that.  


* * *

I will tell you a story that I keep hidden from the rest of the story I tell.

Don't look at me like that; a man is justified in keeping secrets. Especially these.

I will refer to a few incidents, which you should remember by now. Firstly, my discussion with Nagato after she had created that alternate reality, during the winter. After that, the snow mountain incident, which I know now was due to the 'macrospacial quantum'... whatever. That thing.

Then there was that time when I realized how jealous I was when a middle-school acquaintance tried to confess to her. And the time that she said nothing when I asked her to arrange for us to spend time together, and then, well, ditched her.

I still blame Asahina-san (big) for that, by the way.

But, I cannot dodge personal responsibility entirely.

Okay, I can, but I reserve that trick for Haruhi.

And this is about Nagato, not Haruhi. Nagato, who I sometimes thought of as an ally, sometimes thought of as a goddess I wanted to seal up in a shrine and worship, and sometimes, but not nearly enough, someone I thought I could protect.

So not long after Asahina-san's kidnapping, before the end of the school year, I had decided that I was going to ask Nagato out. Mind you, I had no illusions about what the experience was going to be like - probably awkward, with her staring at me coolly, and me making a fool out of myself. Someone would also inevitably let it get back to Haruhi, and then I would end up paying the price.

But let us consider that penance for mistreating Nagato.

Perhaps I am needlessly digressing ... but then, you know this isn't the first time. Actually, that's no excuse at all, is it?

To the point, then:

I had asked Nagato to meet me at the cafe that the Brigade frequently stopped at. She had agreed in her quiet, unresisting way, and after meeting up, we took a table near the back together.

She stares at me, her eyes full of liquid light, and says nothing.

"Nagato," I say slowly, trying to find the words, "I feel like I owe you a lot."

Her eyes turn downward, to her bubble-tea. "No problem," she whispers.

I frown as a somewhat familiar looking waitress comes to our table and sets my own coffee before me. At a table behind me, a larger man in a black shirt with a red tie laughs quietly about some joke with his friend in a white shirt. Maybe I enjoy the mostly unchanging reality, and maybe I enjoy the silences that Nagato and I can share; while she's always quiet, I cannot complain about the fact that silence between us means that everything is alright.

"Kura-chan," the man in the white shirt says, chuckling, "you never really have told me what possessed you to transfer all the way here from Okinomiya."

"Ah, well, to be honest, Aida-chan, when I was younger I just thought Nishinomiya would be more interesting ... and at the time, there was a request for more officers to respond to an uprise in yakuza activity, so..."

Well, I don't really care about the specifics of their conversation. I can guess that they're police officers or something, most of the time. But right now, they're two friends enjoying a discussion. Much like I want Nagato and myself to be.

After adding a touch of sugar and cream to my coffee, I shake my head slightly. "It's more than that, Nagato," I tell her, lowering my voice. No reason to allow myself to be overheard. "Just like that cave cricket incident. I get the feeling that somehow, you've done much more than I might ever really know for me."

"It is no problem," she repeats, though for a moment - just a moment - I see a hint of something in her eyes. Something that numbs and chills me. I pride myself for being able to read Nagato, when most people can't. Maybe I'm arrogant and don't see anything more, and maybe I'm just fooling myself and claim to see things that aren't there. But I sense, for just that instant, unspoken sadness.

"It is a problem," I reply, staring at my coffee cup and slowly rotating it on the saucer, fidgeting for no reason. "I ... can't lie to myself forever. But more importantly, I can't lead you on for no good reason."

"What is 'leading on'?" she asks in her soft voice.

She doesn't ask many questions, but she always heads straight for the ones that make me feel like a jerk. 'Glasses fetish' indeed. Heaving a sigh, I say, "It's when a guy is a real prick, er, that is ... an unlikable person, because he ignores someone else's feelings. Or maybe he just acts like he ignores someone else's feelings, either for his own gain, or because ... he's afraid of the consequences."

After a moment, she says, "I see."

"What I'm trying to say," I stumble, awkwardly, feeling my face heat up, "is that ... I don't want to be the one who relies on you for everything and gives you almost nothing in return. I don't know how, but I'd like to ... do something for you. I may not understand everything ... okay, honestly, I may not understand much at all, but all the same, I'm under the impression that your ... instability is my fault."

"It is no problem," she says again.

That's Nagato for you. "And I disagree with you on that point," I grumble. Her frozen gaze turns to me and briefly wavers, reminding me of that unreadable look she had when she released Asahina-san and myself from the stasis field in her apartment. "I want to help you out."

"It was an error in calculation," she replies. "The incident causing the initial error was synchronizing my waveform function with Suzumiya Haruhi's. The temporal and spacial existence that it occurred in is a hypothetical projection-matrix from non-concurrent reality. Sympathy and contagion caused an irreparable loop in logic, which I calculated would not be an issue for..." She pauses, blinks at me. "Nearly six hundred years."

"A...anyone would go crazy after that long," I tell her, thinking of the time loop last August. I didn't have memories of the other instances, but it was maddening just being aware that they existed. It must have been hell for her. And of course, being somewhat spineless, like a weak male lead in a dramatic anime with multiple love interests, I didn't even call her or visit when she took a day off to recuperate.

"I believe I understand what you are saying," she finally said. "However, even if I am sympathetic to the emotions of Suzumiya Haruhi..." She trails off while making a tiny face, reminding me of her struggle for words when she first tried to tell me about what she really was. A sharp cough from someone else in the cafe causes me to glance over my shoulder, but the waitress is already bustling to another table ... it sounded like her voice, anyway. "Not all of ... my feelings are caused by Suzumiya Haruhi," she admits, turning her gaze back to her empty glass.

I say nothing for the moment, drinking more of my coffee.

"But it would be ... inadvisable to act on these feelings. Suzumiya Haruhi's reaction would be ... difficult." Then she blinks, and for a moment, her eyes are shining, moist. "At one time, I attempted to make a world where ... my desires would be realized. You rejected that world."

I shift in my seat uncomfortably. "I rejected that world," I agree quietly. "But that's because the people in that world weren't the people I knew and came to care about. Most importantly ... I rejected that world because even if she looked like you, and had the most soul-melting smile I'd ever seen ... that Nagato was not the Nagato that I've come to know. Eh ... at the risk of being too forward ... she wasn't my Nagato."

She blinks rapidly several times, eyes still moist.

"What I'm trying to say is, if nothing else, I'd like us to be better friends. And I know you have feelings, so ... as much as I can, I'd like to be there for you when you need. Don't just wait for me to call on you ... call on me." I reach a hand across the table, palm up. "If I'm a part of the problem you're experiencing, I'd like to try and also help prevent it from being a problem in the future. And, well, sometimes that may mean calling me out on acting indifferent ... even if- Ah, well, who am I kidding. Even though you're right, and it's the kind of thing that we can't let Haruhi see."

An instant stretches into an uncomfortably long pause, before she cautiously reaches her own hand across the table, setting it atop mine as though afraid that we would explode, like matter and antimatter. Thankfully, that doesn't happen; her small, cool hand rests in mine, and I give it a weak, hopefully comforting squeeze. The tiniest bits of color blossom on her cheeks as she stares at our linked hands; if I were not searching for them, I would not have seen them. Scientific instrumentation powerful enough to detect it may not even exist, yet.

But I refuse to believe it's just my imagination.

"I do rely on you," she says, not looking up. "That is why I no longer have cross-temporal synchronization. That is why I have sealed most major functions away with password protection. It is because ... I trust you."

...I'd be lying if I said I didn't at least suspect that. It's still somewhat staggering to hear, as it's one of the most emotional things I've ever heard Nagato say. "Thank you, Nagato," I tell her quietly, bowing my head. "I'm glad I can do at least that one small thing for you."

She squeezes my hand back, her head sinking a fraction further as she stares into her empty glass.

"Oi!" the larger man calls loudly, rising from his seat and waving at the waitress, his cell-phone in his other hand. "Thanks for the service, but I'm afraid we have to go. Duty calls."

I glance over as his friend pulls a large bill from his wallet. Aida, I think the smaller man is called, asks, "Is this too much?"

"Ah, yes, quite a bit - I'll get change," the waitress replies, ducking her head. "One moment."

"No time," Aida says, shooting me a smirk. "Use some of the extra to cover the couple over there in the corner, if it's not too much trouble."

"Certainly!" the waitress chirps, giving the two police officers a warm smile and a proper bow as they hustle out of the door, handing the bill directly to her.

Nagato's eyes are still watery, as though she was struggling to contain something, but she gives a sharp nod. "It is not a small thing," she finally says. "I should thank you."

Of course, this is me, and the world where Haruhi lives. It is at precisely this moment she walks in, Koizumi and Asahina-san behind her. Mine and Nagato's hands both dart away from one another, mine nearly knocking over my coffee cup as I snatch it and almost choke on the now cooled drink, trying to act casual. Asahina-san looks charmingly bewildered, as always, and Koizumi's usually unreadable expression shows mild disappointment at me before he covers it up.

"'Couple'?" Haruhi asks, storming past the waitress. "What's going on here? I demand an explanation!"

"Instant scene," I sigh, setting my coffee cup down. "Just add Haruhi."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

Nagato quietly explains, "I was asked to assist in studying."

Yeah, that sounds about right. I try to offer to help Nagato, and it all comes out as me relying on her even more... What a shock. I'm probably spineless enough to pilot a giant robot. Maybe even a whole squad of robots, which all link up into an even larger giant robotic spineless wimp.

"What, I'm not helpful enough?" Haruhi demands, looming ominously overhead, arms crossed over her chest as she glares down at me.

"Well, we can't all be as accidentally brilliant as you," I tell her. "Some of us struggle. Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"I can believe it," she says, sighing, shaking her head. "Well, when your cell phone went straight to voicemail, I called your house, and your little sister told me where to find you. Turning your phone off to ask Yuki for help studying and trying to hide it from the rest of us? You really are dumber than a bag of rocks!"

"Thanks," I reply dryly. Also, note to self: Never tell my little sister anything about ... let's go with anything, again. Ever. "At least I have my charm and wit."

"I really doubt that first part," she says skeptically, uncrossing her arms and dragging another table next to the one that Nagato and I share. "But sure, you can be amusing sometimes."

"So, you see me on the level of a trained monkey, dancing for an organ grinder to amuse you?"

Her eyes light up. "Ooooh!" she enthuses, her grin widening. "That's a great costume idea, Kyon! It'll be even better than the reindeer!"

...why do I do this to myself?

"We'll find some small cymbals, and-" Haruhi blinks suddenly, halfway lowered to her seat next to me as she stares at Nagato. "H...hey, Yuki? Yuki-chan? Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong," she answers, blinking, two tears escaping her eyes, rolling down her cheeks.

Haruhi stares, working her jaw, then I'm suspended by my front shirt collar, Haruhi manhandling me - as she always does. How does someone shorter than me lift me into the air, you ask?

Very casually, as it turns out.

I wish I could say otherwise, but I cannot. It seems my fate to lose any struggle with a woman, but especially Haruhi. Please, don't let my little sister discover this weakness.

"Kyoooooon," Haruhi growls, "what did you do to Yuki-chan?"

"Nothing," Nagato says, her voice unchanging, despite the tears trickling down her face. "I am ... happy."

"You don't look happy," the demonic Brigade leader comments, dropping me to the floor where I fall to my knees, almost collapsing into Haruhi. She absently grabs the back of my shirt collar and pulls me closer to her, incidentally pressing the side of my face into her hip as she stares intently into Nagato's eyes.

Hey! Doesn't this seem even the slightest bit inappropriate to you! Not that I terribly mind- Wait! I don't acknowledge that! Forget about that part! I assure you, I am full of resentment for the current situation, and only my completely powerless state in a struggle with a female prevents me from trying to escape!

Yes. That is exactly it, now let us never discuss it again. I reiterate: Never again.

Ahem.

Moving on.

"Okay!" she relents abruptly, shaking her head. "If study sessions with Kyon mean so much to you, I'll allow it. But if he does anything I don't approve of..." Her gaze turns to me, her smile widening to a manic, world-devouring grin, eyes gleaming with the fury of a million suns. I believe she has added-attack paralyze, because I cannot move when she stares into my eyes.

This is beyond unfair, considering that my loss was already a foregone conclusion. You don't need cheat codes when you get to level 99, Haruhi.

"You will wish it was merely a hundred death penalties!" Then she lets me go, smacking my shoulder playfully. "Give her your handkerchief, you jerk," she orders.

"Yeah, that's me," I sigh, climbing back into my seat and handing Nagato my handkerchief. She efficiently dabs at her eyes and folds the cloth back. "Go ahead and hang onto that for now," I add, when she seems uncertain what to do with it.

She nods, holding it in both hands, a tiny smile coming to her lips. "Thank you," she says softly. "I am glad."

"I'm supervising these study sessions," Haruhi warns as the waitress approaches. "He really is hopeless. It'll take all of us to get him respectable grades."

"Na...Na...Nagato-san was crying?" Asahina-san asks, her eyes wide as she seems to partially recover from her shock. "Sh...sh...she's smiling now!"

"This is interesting," Koizumi agrees, shooting me a look that promises one of those epic lectures I've learned to lump in with anything said by a teacher, ever. That is to say, I will ignore it.

"Well, of course she's smiling now," Haruhi says, rolling her eyes. "With all of us beating study information into Kyon's skull, she won't have to endure being around an idiot so much!"

On a personal note to Haruhi, though one I will not speak aloud: I STRONGLY DISAGREE.

But I digress. "Can we talk about something other than how dumb I am?" I ask.

"Yeah, okay, next order of business," she says, turning to the waitress and stabbing a finger at me, "since he made Yuki-chan cry, even if it was because she's happy, he's covering all of us. So, everyone, order whatever you want!" The waitress giggles quietly and nods, brushing a strand of pale green hair out of her face and giving me an encouraging wink after Haruhi turns to the menu.

Business as usual, I suppose... While the others are ordering, I casually lean my face on one hand, incidentally hiding my lips from Haruhi. I silently mouth the words, "Afterwards, library?" to Nagato.

Her eyes shimmer slightly and she gives that tiny nod she uses, her smile widening the merest amount. That's enough for me ... for now, anyway.  


* * *

Author's notes (08/31/'10): And ... done. Revised. *ahem* Hopefully this will break us out of the Endless Eight loop. How many times have I posted this chapter, I wonder...?

Technically, this could be a standalone fic that has nothing to do with the previous chapters, which are somewhat AU, while this could more likely fit into the cannon universe.

I really didn't expect the police angle to chew up as much text as it did. It was kind of fun, even though I failed to maintain the genre (this is a Haruhi story, after all). I didn't write Itsuki terribly well, and that's a fault of mine for being relatively new to the media.

I enjoyed writing this story, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. :)

And yes, on occasion, my pro-Yuki bias has been mistaken for a moon by escaping rebel starships. What of it?  



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